LONDON: Gasoline barge prices and refining margins sunk on Thursday on the back of a sell-off in US gasoline futures after investors bid up the product last week on hurricane fears.
Outages in Venezuela did little to prop up the market still suffering from a surplus after a lacklutre summer driving season, particularly in the US East Coast, usually a major pull for European product.
Venezuela's 310,000-barrel-per-day Cardon refinery was not operating after an electrical outage early on Thursday while the adjacent 645,000 bpd Amuay refinery was operating at only 225,000 bpd, according to an internal PDVSA document seen by Reuters.
Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub fell by almost 12 percent to their lowest since early January on the back of transatlantic and West African exports, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International.
GASOLINE
One barge of benchmark Eurobob gasoline traded at $444 a tonne fob ARA after no activity in the previous session.
Some 10,000 tonnes traded throughout the day at $447-$460 a tonne fob ARA, down from $463-$472 a tonne fob ARA
Two barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $459-$460 a tonne fob ARA.
The September swap stood at around $428.50 a tonne, down from $467.50 a tonne at the close.
Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $7.97 a barrel, from $9.56 a barrel on Wednesday.
Brent crude oil futures were down $1.19 at $45.70 a barrel by 1553 GMT.
US August RBOB gasoline futures were down 4.05 percent at 1.4228 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $10.37 a barrel, up slightly from $11.33 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
BP sold a cargo to Koch at $365 a tonne cif Northwest Europe for Sept. 20-24 delivery.
The deal price was down from two done in the previous session at $371 and $371.50 a tonne cif Northwest Europe.
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