LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose sharply on Tuesday, boosted by firm export demand from the Middle East and transatlantic locations.
About 450,000 tonnes of gasoline and blending components are expected to be exported from northwest Europe to the Middle East and Pakistan in the first half of November, according to traders and shipping data.
Shipping reports also showed a rise in export interest from Europe on transatlantic routes, with about seven tankers provisionally booked in recent days.
Gasoline containing up to 10 percent ethanol has become the top-selling petrol in France, its largest market in the European Union, helped by a tax break that made the crop-based fuel more attractive to drivers, French ethanol producers said on Tuesday.
Sales of unleaded SP95-E10 accounted for 38.5 percent of total petrol sales in France in September, the Bioethanol Collective said in a statement.
Valero Energy's 90,000 barrels per day (bpd) FCC at its Pembroke refinery in Wales suffered an unexpected outage last week.
The 31,000 bpd catalytic reformer at Exxon's 190,000 bpd Rotterdam refinery remains shut after a fire in August, a spokeswoman said.
GASOLINE
No trades of Eurobob gasoline barges emerged in the afternoon trading window. Bids were seen at $630 a tonne fob ARA, down from $634 the previous day.
Earlier in the day 10,000 tonnes traded at $643 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, up from $624-$627 in the previous session. Shell and Total sold to Gunvor.
Gunvor sold to Total a barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $644 a tonne fob ARA, up from $632-$635 the previous day.
The December swap stood at $599 a tonne, down slightly from $600 the previous day.
The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin rose to $12.16 a barrel from $10.67.
Brent crude futures were down 50 cents to $63.77 a barrel at 1703 GMT.
US front-month RBOB gasoline futures were down 1.15 percent at $1.8090 a gallon.
The RBOB crack versus US crude weakened by 3.3 percent to $18.86 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
No naphtha cargoes traded.
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