Global products market weekly: Margins retreat as gasoline cracks retraced from last week’s spike

The oil market saw prices briefly fall at the end of the previous week after the US Federal bank hiked interest rates by 0.75 percentage points, raising expectations of a downside impact to demand. However, concerns about supply continued to plague the market. Refinery demand for light sweet crudes remains high. Consequently, supply disruptions such as the drop in Libyan output, after some oil production facilities were shut amid a political stalemate, provided fundamental support to prices. North Sea Dated crude’s weekly average increased by US$1.15/bbl, in the week ended 17 June. Our ex-RVO global composite refining margin fell modestly by US$0.86/bbl to US$28.86/bbl, pressured by further weakness in naphtha cracks, while gasoline cracks retraced some of the recent gains. Weekly margins were at US$26.19/bbl above the five-year historical average for the same week of the year.