LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe strengthened on Thursday as strong demand from West Africa continued to underpin the market, and as traders caught up with a late rally in US gasoline futures in the previous session.
US RBOB gasoline futures had spiked late on Wednesday, rallying by as much as 10 percent as traders eyed stronger demand after sharp price falls in the world's largest consumer of the fuel.
Strong demand from Nigeria, which recently issued its allocations to buy around 3 million tonnes of gasoline in the first quarter, has supported European gasoline this week.
Fifteen tankers have been booked in the last week to ship about 800,000 tonnes of what traders say is mostly gasoline to West Africa.
Stocks of gasoline in independent storage at Europe's Antwerp-Rotterdam-Amsterdam hub fell in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch-based PJK International showed, falling to 689,000 tonnes from 730,000 tonnes.
In Europe, Finland's Neste Oil is planning an eight-week turnaround for maintenance at its 206,000 barrel per day Porvoo refinery, starting in April, traders said on Thursday.
GASOLINE
There were no trades, bids or offers of benchmark Eurobob gasoline.
About 7,000 tonnes traded earlier in the day at $445 to and $473 a tonne fob ARA, up from $431-$440 a tonne. Shell, Total and Gunvor were on the sell side while BP, Trafigura and Statoil were on the buy side.
The early trades came at discounts to the February swap of $2.50 to $5 a tonne, slightly lower than on Wednesday.
At the close, the February swap was quoted at $454 a tonne, up from $435 a tonne.
Argos sold to Total three barges of premium unleaded gasoline at between $478-$480 a tonne fob ARA, up from $458 a tonne on Wednesday, when Total was also buying.
At 1745 GMT Brent crude oil futures were down 39 cents at $48.30 a barrel.
Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was at about $5.58 a barrel, up from $2.83 a barrel.
US RBOB gasoline futures for February were down 2.15 percent at 1.3216 a gallon. The prompt crack was at almost $8 a barrel against $7.30 a barrel.
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