European gasoline margins hit 2.5-month high

Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose above $10 a barrel on Monday to their highest since mid-November as oil prices slid and export demand supported. Brent crude prices fell by nearly 2 percent in afternoon trading on concerns over rising US production.
Gasoline margins also benefitted from strong demand from West Africa. At least two new bookings to move gasoline from Europe to West Africa emerged on Monday, according to shipping reports.
Some 1.5 million tonnes of gasoline are scheduled to load in Europe for West Africa over the next two weeks, according to shipping data and fixtures. China's end-December commercial crude oil stocks rose 3.24 percent from levels the previous month, while inventories for three main refined fuel products gained 9.1 percent, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.
Spain's Petronor is shutting down the hydrodesulphurizing unit three and cogeneration unit one at its 220,000 barrel per day (bpd) Bilbao oil refinery for planned maintenance today, the company said in a statement Brazilian state-controlled oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA said on Monday it is working on a new contract model for gasoline and diesel distributors in a bid to recover market share that has was lost to competition from importers. In the first 11 months of 2017, Brazil imported nearly 207 million barrels of refined products, 25 percent more than the same period in 2016 and up from any full year on record, as rival market share in the distribution market shot up.
No barges of eurobob gasoline traded during the afternoon trading window. Bids were seen at $663 a tonne fob ARA. Elsewhere during the day, 8,000 tonnes traded at $660-$667.50 a tonne fob ARA, compared with $663-$665 a tonne on Friday. Gunvor sold to BP and Litasco sold to Vitol and Shell.
Varo sold to Total five barges of premium unleaded gasoline at $687 a tonne fob ARA, down from $690 a tonne on Friday. The February swap stood at $664.50 a tonne fob ARA, down from $666.75 a tonne the previous session.
BP, Shell and Gunvor each offered a fob Mediterranean cargo at $666-$676 a tonne without attracting any buyers. The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin rose to $10.10 a barrel from $8.82. Brent crude futures were down $1.21 at $69.31 a barrel by 1644 GMT.