Asia gasoline cracks slump as Malaysia curbs travel, Vietnam finds new variant

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – Gasoline cracks fell by more than $1/b on the prompt after a weekend where Vietnam announced it had found a new Covid-19 variant while Malaysia announced national lockdown from Tuesday.

Gasoline cash differentials for 92 RON fell from a positive number last week to a discount of $0.30 on the back of one deal, while the swaps curve fell by $0.40-50/b on a day crude moved north.

That left the spot crack down $1.57/b, or 25%, on the day at $4.67/b, the lowest in two weeks, with the June cracks down $1.06/b.

The collapse comes amid several outbreaks of Covid-19 across the region.

The most notable was a lockdown for at least two weeks in Malaysia starting on June 1, while Guandong in China and south Australia also announced fresh restrictions. 

In addition, Vietnam said it had found a new strain of Covid-19 that looked to be a combination of both the Indian and UK variants, while China's southern province Guangdong announced fresh lockdowns after authorities found 13 new cases over the weekend.