Japan gasoline demand jumps w/e June 5; crude processing dips

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – Gasoline demand in Japan shot up 38% to 822 million litres in the week ending June 5, according to implied demand figures based on Petroleum Association Japan data released Wednesday.

The PAJ data does not include imports of refined products and so actual sales figures may be even higher.

State of emergency restrictions in the country related to the pandemic were recently extended to mid-June, but cases in Tokyo have fallen since the end of May and both the US and the European Union removed 'do not travel' advice for the country this week.

Naphtha stocks rebounded, gaining 65 million litres mt to 1.436 billion litres after domestic demand fell by more than half to 155 million litres.

Crude oil processing dropped 0.75% to 2.4 billion litres and the utilisation rate against available capacity fell nearly 5 percentage points to 81.9%.

Crude stocks rose 4.1% to 11.7 billion litres.