Global product markets weekly: High crude prices continue to undermine refinery margins

For the week commencing 23 April, refinery margins were mixed across the world, with some regions posting a small recovery after the past few volatile weeks. Weekly aggregated stock levels for gasoline, middle distillates and residual fuel oil in the US, NW Europe, Japan, Singapore and the Middle East are expected to have drawn further. Middle distillates continue to draw with several unplanned outages in Europe and North Asia, which consequently reduced production levels. The weekly average Brent price strengthened close to US$75/bbl, on the expectation that the US may withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran which would result in further sanctions and reduced Iranian oil exports.