LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose on Thursday after a drop in US inventories sparked a wave of export bookings.
ARA gasoline stocks rose in the week to Thursday by 1.3 percent to 808,000 tonnes, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
A sharp rise in benchmark US gasoline refining margins in recent days has led to an increase in transatlantic exports from Europe, traders said.
Gasoline prices in southern Germany remained supported by an ongoing outage at Total's Leuna refinery.
Low water levels along the Rhine river also limited barge loading capacity, exacerbating the tightness in inland markets, traders said.
US gasoline stocks fell last week for the fifth straight week, down 4.4 million barrels.
The union representing workers at Portugal's Galp Energia has called a six-day strike at the company's two refineries staring on July 26 to demand that Galp resume a collective bargaining agreement.
Algeria's state-run oil company Sonatrach has issued a tender to buy five 30,000 tonne cargoes of gasoline in August, traders said. The five cargoes are to be delivered into the ports of Skikda, Arzew and Algiers.
GASOLINE
No barges of Eurobob gasoline traded in the afternoon trading window. Bids emerged at $519 a tonne fob ARA, up from $515 a tonne on Wednesday.
Outside the window, some 12,000 tonnes of Eurobob barges traded at $520-$523.50 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, up from $511.50 a tonne a day earlier. Gunvor, CCMA and Total sold to Shell and Varo.
Castleton sold to Total one barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $529 a tonne fob ARA, up from $526 a tonne fob ARA.
The August swap stood at $521 a tonne at the close, up from $517 a tonne on Wednesday.
Brent crude futures were down 31 cents a barrel at $49.39 a barrel at 1538 GMT.
The benchmark ebob gasoline refining margin rose to $13.54 a barrel from $12.29 a barrel.
US front-month RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.53 percent at 1.6086 a gallon.
The RBOB crack versus US crude stood at $20.75 a barrel, up from $20.43 a barrel at the previous close.
NAPHTHA
No naphtha cargoes traded.
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