LONDON: Gasoline barge prices strengthened on Friday, with rising crude oil prices and strikes that have closed 60 percent of French refining capacity offering some support in an otherwise subdued end-of-year market.
"It is the wrong time to strike, Christmas time," said one trader. "I think the year-end is the muting effect as everyone is minimising stocks but once it comes to January, they will restock and it will be a problem. Margins will move higher."
The head of France's oil industry group said imports from neighbours and stored oil are keeping France well supplied with fuel on the eighth day of the strike that has closed down most units at four Total refineries.
Total bought one barge of gasoline on Friday, but another trader said the oil major had been in the market for cargoes to make up the shortfall in production at its refineries.
Total was also offering a cargo, the trader said.
"It's a muddy picture," he added.
The strikes come as data for November showed European refining output had begun to recover from the previous month, weak margins prompted cuts in processing runs on top of the seasonal production outages due to scheduled maintenance.
European refinery output rose 8 percent in November from the previous month but was still below its level a year, data from industry monitor Euroilstock showed on Friday, as plants cut production due to poor margins.
No cargoes traded in the Mediterranean.
Gasoline output was up 4.7 percent on the previous month, but down 0.8 percent from November 2012. Naphtha output rose 18.5 percent from October and 1.6 percent on the year.
One naphtha cargo traded on Friday but traders said the market was winding down ahead of next week's holiday.
GASOLINE
No barges of benchmark Eurobob gasoline traded in the Platts price assessment window. There was one bid at $965 a tonne fob ARA and no offers. Four barges traded on Thursday at $947-$948 a tonne fob ARA.
Four barges traded on the Argus platform at $951-$952 a tonne fob ARA, up from $937-$950 a tonne on Thursday. BP sold two barges to Gunvor, one to Total and one to Morgan Stanley.
No barges of premium unleaded traded on Friday. There were discussions at $973.50 a tonne fob ARA.
By 1640 GMT, Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was at $1.486 a barrel, down slightly from $2.025 on Thursday.
The January swap was trading at around $966 a tonne at the close, compared to $951 a tonne on Thursday.
Brent crude oil futures were up 95 cents at $111.24 a barrel by 1624 GMT.
US RBOB gasoline futures in New York were up 1.27 percent at $2.7750 a gallon, and the prompt crack was at $17.67 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
One naphtha cargo traded in the price assessment window with BASF selling to Koch at $958 cif NWE for Jan. 1-5 loading.
The December crack swap weakened to minus $2.75 from minus $2.30 a day earlier.
The January crack swap was at minus $3.30 a barrel, down from minus $3.10 a barrel on Thursday. The February swap was at minus $4.65 a barrel.
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