European gasoline margins fall as market eases

Gasoline refining margins in north-west Europe fell further on Monday, pressured by diminishing opportunities for European exporters as US and Asian markets traded lower. Phillips shut down its 234,000 barrel per day (bpd) Humber refinery in Britain for planned maintenance work, sources told Reuters. Traders said the works, which began late last week, are part of a five-week planned turnaround that had been scheduled for May.
The Gibraltar-San Roque oil refinery in southern Spain completed its first scheduled shutdown of the year, owner Cepsa said. All units are now online after the work, which lasted a month, on a gasoline-producing fluid-catalytic cracking unit, crude distillation unit and lubrisur plants.
US gasoline demand will peak this year at roughly 9.3 million barrels per day (bpd) before beginning a steady decline to 2022, the International Energy Agency said in a medium-term outlook released on Monday Oil refiners are expected to have 1,149,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline in the week to March 10, increasing available refining capacity by 520,000 bpd from the previous week data from research company IIR showed.
Asian refining margins suffered their biggest weekly fall more than six months after Singapore gasoline prices tumbled in line with US values and naphtha slumped on fears of rising exports from Western producers. Traders expect a quick rebound in margins once several of the region's largest oil refiners shut for maintenance in the coming weeks.
West Africa is currently the most attractive market for European gasoline cargoes. Those exports climbed by more than 60 percent month on month in February to a total of at least 1.78 million tonnes, industry monitor Genscape said in a report.
No barges of benchmark European gasoline traded in the afternoon window. An offer emerged at $520 a tonne fob ARA. Earlier in the day 4,000 tonnes traded at $517-518 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $529 a tonne fob in the previous session. CCMA sold to Total premium unleaded gasoline at $524 a tonne fob ARA, the same as the previous session.