European gasoline margins end week higher

Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe ended the week about 10 percent higher, supported by rising exports to the US East Coast. Gasoline exports from Europe to the US East Coast rose over the week as buying ahead of the peak summer driving season accelerated, traders said. The gasoline arbitrage from NW Europe into the US East Coast firmed by 58 percent over the past week on stronger East Coast prices, Jefferies said in a note.
An unusually large quantity of gasoline is floating off the coast of West Africa as Nigeria boosts imports to avoid shortages before a presidential election early next year. Nearly 1.5 million tonnes of the motor fuel is on ships off West African shores, according to industry monitor Genscape. That is the highest level since Genscape began tracking the data in January 2017.
Gasoline stocks held in independent storage at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining and storage hub were reduced by more exports this week combined with a drop in imports, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International. Spain's Petronor said it planned to restart a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker at its 220,000 bpd Bilbao oil refinery on Friday. The 46,000 bpd unit was hit by an unplanned outage this month.
Some of China's top refineries will shut for maintenance in May and June, cutting nationwide throughput by 10 percent and reducing oil demand in the world's largest crude importer after record run levels in March, a Reuters survey showed. There were no trades of eurobob gasoline during the afternoon trading window. A bid emerged at $707 a tonne fob ARA, up from bids of $699 a tonne on Thursday.
Elsewhere, Total sold to Shell two barges of eurobob at $701 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with trades at $696 and $697.50 a tonne the previous day. No barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded. An offer came in at $707 a tonne fob ARA. The May swap stood at $702 a tonne at the close, up from $696. The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin was little changed at $8.214 a barrel. Brent crude futures were up 3 cents at $74.77 a barrel at 1528 GMT.