LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe weakened on Friday along with barge prices.
Workers at Total's five French refineries went on strike as a wage row with management intensified.
Traders were not expecting the strike to have a severe impact on the market if it is swiftly resolved. However, if it is prolonged, European product prices could rise significantly due to lower availability.
"It depends on the duration. The strike could hamper some exports but then this is a quiet period anyway with the Christmas break," a trader said.
While the strike was having an impact at the 339,000-barrels per day (bpd) Gonfreville, the 119,000 bpd Feyzin, the 155,000-bpd La Mede near Marseille and the 99,000-bpd Grandpuits near Paris, the 231,000-bpd Donges plant near Nantes had not been producing since last week due to technical issues.
Feyzin was in ramping-up mode after planned maintenance.
Total capacity in the five plants is 943,000 bpd.
While gasoline exports to the United States were limited this week, at least eight tankers were booked in recent days to go to West Africa, offering some support to prices, traders said.
In the Mediterranean, several long range (LR2) tankers have been booked in recent to take gasoline to the Middle East, traders said.
"The strength in the Med is provided by open arbitrage to the Gulf with a couple of LR loading in December," a trader said.
GASOLINE
No barges of benchmark Eurobob gasoline traded in the Platts price assessment window for a seventh day. There were no bids or offers.
Some 13,000 tonnes traded on the Argus platform at $916-$925 a tonne fob ARA, down from $927-$935 a tonne on Thursday.
BP sold five cargoes to Gunvor, Shell, Total and Trafigura. Chevron sold to Cargill, Vitol sold to Gunvor.
Some of the early trades came at discounts to the January swap of between $1 and $1.75 a tonne.
By 1638 GMT, Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was at around $0.91 a barrel, down from $1.66 a barrel on Thursday.
Three barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $922 a tonne fob ARA, down from $932-$935 a tonne on Thursday.
The January swap was trading at around $918 a tonne at the close, down from $927 a tonne.
Brent crude oil futures were down 43 cents at $108.24 a barrel by 1700 GMT.
US RBOB gasoline futures in New York were down 0.54 percent at $2.6204 a gallon, and the prompt crack was at $13.61 a barrel.
One naphtha cargo traded in the afternoon price assessment window. BP sold a cargo to Statoil for Jan. 3-7 loading at $939 a tonne cif NWE, down from $947 a tonne.
The prompt crack was at minus $2.67 a barrel, weaker than $2.37 a barrel on Thursday.
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