NEW YORKNEW DELHILONDON June 17 Reuters Oil refiners are making less money selling their gasoline as demand during the peak summer driving season has fallen short of what they expected when many of them boosted production.

Softness in gasoline markets have upended years of record profits on selling transportation fuels. In the U.S., the world39;s largest gasoline market, refiners ramped up sharply, expecting demand that never materialized. U.S. gasoline demand was 9 million barrels per day bpd in the first week of June, 1.7 below last year and seasonally the lowest since 2021, government data showed.

In Asia, weakness in the gasoline market has already led to run cuts, and refiners elsewhere are also likely to pull back in weeks ahead. This could reduce global demand for crude oil.

Given the retreat from elevated margins, we cite risk to refiners39; continued maximum output strategy to reap record profits, BMI, a unit of Fitch Solutions, said in a note last month.

Brent oil prices are down about 9 from a midApril peak to around 83 a barrel, most recently on concerns that the OPEC producer group will add supply to the market. The producer group last week warned that a slow start to the summer driving season and low margins are weighing on sentiment.

Even with crude prices slipping, Asian refiners39; profit on making gasoline from a barrel of Brent halved in the last week of May to about 4 per barrel. A glut of fuel supplies prompted the fall in refining margins,…