LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe fell on Thursday as rising inventories in the United States depressed US benchmark prices to their seasonally lowest in eight years and shut off transatlantic arbitrage opportunities.
The Brent crude oil price heads for one of the top five session losses so far this year, as volatile supply in Libya comes back on line.
But US gasoline sheds over 3 percent in their largest losses in over a week bringing the benchmark price down around 13 percent since this year's peak earlier this month.
That level leaves gasoline prices there at the lowest in at least eight years on a seasonal basis.
US gasoline stocks climbed 3.4 million barrels last week, underscoring the oversupply and indicating a closed transatlantic arbitrage.
France's Total said it plans to carry out maintenance work at its 230,000 barrels per day Leuna oil refinery in Germany and the 245,000 bpd Gonfreville refinery in northern France in the second quarter.
Strong buying from the Middle East, as buyers there begin stocking ahead of the fasting month of Ramadan, is giving margins a floor, traders said.
Turkish refiner Tupras offered a 19,000 tonne cargo of reformate for May 17-19 loading and a 30,000-35,000 tonne unleaded gasoline 95 RON cargo for May 13-15 both loading at the Izmit refinery, a tender document showed.
GASOLINE
Gunvor sold to CCMA one barge of benchmark Eurobob gasoline at $508 a tonne fob ARA, lower than the $531 a tonne trade on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, 14,000 tonnes traded at $509-$520 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, with prices falling throughout the day, compared to trades of $531.50-$534 a tonne in the previous session.
Gunvor sold barges to Finco, Varo and Shell, while Total sold one barge to Varo.
Gunvor sold to Total a barge of premium unleaded at $508 a tonne fob ARA compared to trades of $534-$536 a tonne on Wednesday.
No cargo trades were reported.
The May swap traded at $515.50 a tonne at the close, down from $535.50 a tonne.
Brent crude futures were $1.19 lower at $50.63 a barrel by 1550 GMT.
Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $12.147 a barrel from $12.786 a barrel.
US front-month RBOB gasoline futures were 3.11 percent lower at $1.5409 a gallon.
The RBOB crack versus US crude <RBc1-CLc1> stood at $16.53 a barrel, down from $17.34 at the previous day's close.
NAPHTHA
Glencore sold a cargo to CCMA at $435.75 a tonne cif NWE. There were no trades on Wednesday reported.
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