LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe edged slightly higher on Monday, boosted by the unplanned shutdown at Shell's Pernis refinery in Rotterdam and strong buying from West Africa.
Shell remained an active barge buyer throughout the day.
The 404,000 barrels per day Pernis oil refinery is not expected to come back on stream until at least the second half of the month.
Traders said strong buying from West Africa was keeping European cracks afloat.
Nigeria's gasoline imports rose sharply in July, according to traders, and were expected to remain strong in August.
A 76,000 bpd gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit at Total's Port Arthur, Texas, refinery was running at reduced production levels on Monday due to repairs to a pump, sources said.
GASOLINE
Gunvor sold to Varo one barge of Eurobob gasoline during the afternoon session at $540 a tonne fob ARA, down from $546 a tonne on Friday.
Earlier in the day 24,000 tonnes of Eurobob barges traded at $542-$548 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $544-$554 a tonne on Friday. Gunvor and Total sold Varo, Shell and BP. Shell bought almost half the volume.
No barges of premium unleaded traded. An offer emerged at $551 a tonne fob ARA, down from a trade on Friday at $560 a tonne.
The September swap stood at about $540 a tonne, down from $546 a tonne.
BP sold a fob Santa Panagia cargo to Total at $547 a tonne.
The benchmark ebob gasoline refining margin stood at $13.32 a barrel, up from $13.21 a barrel.
Brent crude futures were down 85 cents at $51.57 a barrel at 1541 GMT.
US front-month RBOB gasoline futures were 2.26 percent lower at $1.6091 a gallon.
The RBOB crack versus US crude stood at $18.88 a barrel, down from $19.56 a barrel at the previous close.
NAPHTHA
Vitol sold a cargo to Glencore at $455 a tonne cif NWE. Trafigura sold a cargo to Vilma at $456.5 a tonne cif NWE. Both cargoes were for August 17-21 delivery.
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