LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe eased on Thursday as stocks in the ARA storage hub climbed, but continued export demand gave cracks a floor.
Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub rose by over 6 percent in the week to Thursday, Dutch consultancy PJK International said.
But the upcoming European autumn refinery maintenance season is expected to help soak up some of the supply excess.
European refinery turnarounds are set to peak at around 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in mid-September, less than half the volume that was out during the same period last year but globally, the turnaround outage will be larger at roughly 7 percent of global refinery throughput.
In a move that could spur more spot gasoline cargo demand from Europe, the Brazilian government has no plans to extend a tax exemption for ethanol sales that expires in December as it pushes to rebalance the country's depleted public accounts.
Lifting the exemption is likely to spur an increase in Brazilian gasoline imports to meet greater demand for the fuel as ethanol demand falls.
Shell said it expected increased flaring at its 404,000 barrels-per-day Pernis refinery in the Netherlands on Friday evening, linked to a unit coming online.
GASOLINE
There were no Eurobob trades during the afternoon trading window. There was a bid at $487 a tonne fob ARA, up from a bid at $484 a tonne the previous day.
Some 12,000 tonnes traded throughout the day at $478-$485 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $480-$486 a tonne on Wednesday. Gunvor sold to Rolympus, Shell, Finco, Glencore and BP.
Rolympus sold a barge of premium unleaded gasoline to Total at $503 a tonne fob ARA, up from $491 a tonne on Tuesday.
The September swap stood at around $490 a tonne at the close, up from $484 a tonne.
Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $9.19 a barrel from $9.58 a barrel on Wednesday.
Brent crude oil futures were up 35 cents at $49.40 a barrel by 1540 GMT.
US August RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.79 percent at 1.4976 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $12.33 a barrel, little changed.
NAPHTHA BP sold to Gunvor and BASF sold to Statoil. Both trades were completed at $399 a tonne cif NWE.
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