LONDON: Diesel barge differentials in northwest Europe weakened on Thursday amid rising imports into the region while French refinery strikes offered some support to prices.
Total's five French refineries are running at "minimum output level" due to a nationwide strike against a French government labour law reform, a CGT Union official said on Thursday.
Traders however did not expect the strikes to have severe impact on supplies at this stage as imports were set to gain momentum in the coming weeks.
Gasoil stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub dropped by nearly 4 percent in the week to Thursday, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International.
Total's 270,000 tonne diesel cargo on board the tanker Alice was heading to Rotterdam where it was expected to discharge on Sunday, according to Reuters shipping data and traders.
Several more cargoes were booked to ship diesel to Europe from Asia, the Middle East and the US Gulf Coast, putting pressure on prices.
Imports excluding Russia were expected to reach 3.5 million tonnes in May would eventually lengthen the market, traders said. There was strong buying interest into Turkey as well as North Africa, where gasoil was boosted by tenders from Egypt's EGPC and Algeria's state-run oil company Sonatrach.
GASOIL
No barges of 0.1 percent sulphur content traded.
Barges of 50 ppm gasoil traded at discounts of $7-$7.50 a tonne fob ARA to the June Low Sulphur Gasoil futures, compared with $6-6.50 a tonne discounts the day earlier.
June Low Sulphur Gasoil futures were down $16.75 at $427 a tonne at 1515 GMT.
The June and July contracts were trading in a contango of $1 a tonne, 25 cents wider.
The diesel refining margin was at $9.97 a barrel, up from $10.25 a barrel.
DIESEL Barges of diesel traded at discounts of $2.50-$3 a tonne fob ARA to the June diesel futures, compared with discounts of $1.50-$2 a tonne on Wednesday.
In the Mediterranean, Glencore sold to Litasco and BP a cargo each at premiums of $9-$10 a tonne cif Koper and Sete.
In northwest Europe, Glencore sold to Vitol two cargoes cif Thames.
JET FUEL
No barges traded.
No cargoes traded.
FUEL OIL
No barges with a sulphur content of 3.5 percent fuel oil traded.
Bids and offers came in at $203-$204 a tonne fob ARA, compared with the previous day's trades at $215.50-$215.75 a tonne.
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