European gasoline margins fall on weak export demand

Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe fell on Thursday on weak export demand but refinery maintenance shutdowns capped losses. Exxon shut a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker at its 175,000 barrels-per-day Augusta oil refinery in Italy after a fire on March 3, a spokeswoman said BP said planned maintenance was underway at its German oil refinery in Gelsenkirchen-Scholven, but a spokesman declined to give details
Industry monitor Genscape said on Tuesday a 70,000 barrels-per-day CDU at the 140,000 bpd site had been shut down Oil stocks in independently held storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining and storage hub rose by 6.9 percent in the week to Thursday, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International But gasoline stocks fell slightly to 1.283 million tonnes No barges of eurobob gasoline traded.
Elsewhere, 24,000 tonnes on gasoline barges traded at $562 to $570 a tonne fob ARA, compared with $575 to $580 a tonne recently. Total, Litasco, Gunvor and Vitol sold to BP and Shell. No barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded. The April swap stood at $628 a tonne fob ARA, down from $641.50 a tonne the previous day. The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin fell to $3.745 a barrel from $4.547. Brent crude futures were down 67 cents a barrel at $63.67 a barrel by 1859 GMT.