LONDON: Benchmark gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe edged higher on Wednesday after US inventories of the motor fuel fell sharply last week, but the expected restart of a major US pipeline capped gains.
US gasoline stocks fell by 3.2 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 567,000 barrels drop, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
Stocks in PADD1 were down nearly 8.5 million barrels, while PADD3 stocks were up by around 4.8 million barrels.
The inventory changes in the two regions are largely on the back an outage on the Colonial Pipeline that left gasoline stranded in the US Gulf, unable to reach the East Coast.
The pipeline's operator Colonial Pipeline Co was given US government approval for a Wednesday restart. * The conduit carries 1.3 million barrels per day of gasoline from the refining hub on the Gulf Coast to the East Coast. * Refinery outages in the United States also boosted margins.
PBF Energy's Torrance refinery in Los Angeles will be down for at least two weeks following an outage earlier this week, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The plant's gasoline, diesel and alkylation units are running on a steam backup system, while its crude and coker units remain down, the source said.
At least three tankers that loaded gasoline in Europe in recent weeks are now sailing to the US West Coast in a rare move, that was most likely caused by the PBF outage, according to traders and Reuters ship tracking.
Europe's refineries produced 3.6 percent more gasoline in August than in July at 2.65 million bpd, data from industry monitor Euroilstock showed.
GASOLINE
A summer grade barge of benchmark eurobob gasoline traded at $475 a tonne fob ARA, compared with offers the previous day at $473 a tonne. Winter grade barges were bid at $463 a tonne.
Some 10,000 tonnes traded earlier in the day at $482 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, up from $471-$474 a tonne on Tuesday. Statoil and Gunvor sold to Rolympus.
Rolympus sold to Total a barge of summer grade premium unleaded gasoline at $499 a tonne fob ARA, up from $481 a tonne fob ARA on Tuesday.
The October swap stood at around $461 a tonne at the close, up from $451.50 a tonne.
Gasoline barge refining margins rose to $11.31 from $10.57 a barrel on Tuesday.
Brent crude oil futures were up $1.04 at $46.92 a barrel by 1540 GMT.
US October RBOB gasoline futures were up 2.35 percent at 1.3967 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $11.98 a barrel, down from $13.86 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
BP sold a cargo to Statoil at $400 a tonne cif NWE, up from $390 a tonne.
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