LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe fell sharply on Tuesday as crude prices advanced, but stronger export demand to the US and West Africa and refinery outages provided a floor.
Declining inventories on both sides of the Atlantic opened the arbitrage out of Europe to the US East Coast, with several winter-grade gasoline cargoes booked in recent days.
Around 1.5 million tonnes of gasoline and naphtha have been booked on the transatlantic route to load in August, according to Reuters shipping data.
Interest in shipping gasoline from the Mediterranean region to the Middle East has also picked up this month.
Arbitrage economics for sending reformate from ARA to China are improving, traders said.
Petroineos chartered the MR Aquarius to load a 40,000 tonne cargo at the UK port of Finnart on Sept. 1 to go to China, according to shipping reports.
Refinery outages in Europe are also tightening the market and boosting margins.
Total has shut down the fluid catalytic cracker at its 102,000 bpd Grandpuits refinery for maintenance lasting several days, a spokesman said.
Romania's 100,000 bpd Constanta oil refinery is running at reduced capacity after a fire on the vacuum distillation unit on Monday.
GASOLINE
There were no Eurobob trades during the afternoon trading window. There were no bids or offers.
Some 8,000 tonnes traded in the morning at $474-$475 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $485-$486 a tonne fob on Monday.
Gunvor and Total sold to Shell and BP.
There were no trades of premium unleaded gasoline barges.
Bid and offer discussions emerged at $495-$497 a tonne fob ARA, little changed from trade the previous day.
The September swap stood at around $489.50 a tonne at the close, up from $486 a tonne.
Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $7.73 a barrel, from $9.50 a barrel on Monday.
Brent crude oil futures were up 72 cents at $49.88 a barrel by 1543 GMT.
US August RBOB gasoline futures were up 0.62 percent at 1.4934 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $11.48 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
Trafigura sold to Koch a cif NWE cargo at $397 a tonne, up from trade on Monday at $389-$390 a tonne
The naphtha crack was at around minus $4.68 a barrel, little changed.
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