LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe firmed again on Wednesday despite rising gasoline stocks in the United States as traders said arbitrage was working west and opportunities opened into north Africa.
Data from the US Energy Information Administration showed gasoline stock gains, countering hopes that the glut had disappeared. * Still, the EIA said that US gasoline demand hit a historic high of 9.82 million barrels-per-day (bpd).
Refiners in southern California are bracing for potential disruptions ahead of possible blackouts this summer due to the closure of a key natural gas field.
Quality requirements in California, along with the Jones Act that can make shipping from one US port to another expensive, mean that the state sometimes imports European gasoline when supplies are tight.
Some light end cargoes were also sailing into Latin America from Europe, traders said, including naphtha to Brazil.
Egypt's EGPC is running a tender to buy one cargo per month of gasoline delivered to Alexandria in July, August and September, as well as at least one cargo basis Suez.
GASOLINE
Shell sold to Vitol one barge of benchmark Eurobob in the window at $524 a tonne fob ARA, up from trades at $517-$519 a tonne on Tuesday.
Barges of benchmark Eurobob traded outside the window at $521-$527 a tonne fob ARA, up from $513-$519 a tonne on Tuesday.
Total and Varo sold to Shell and Gunvor.
Rolympus sold to Total two barges of premium unleaded gasoline at $531 a tonne fob ARA, compared with offers on Tuesday at $529 a tonne.
In the Mediterranean, Total offered a cargo at as low as $519 fob Thessaloniki for July 2-6 loading.
The July swap stood at $525 a tonne at the close, compared with $519 a tonne on Tuesday.
Gasoline barge refining margins firmed to $13.97 a barrel, up from $12.29 a barrel on Tuesday.
Brent crude oil futures were trading 82 cents a barrel lower at $49.80 a barrel at 1541 GMT.
US July RBOB gasoline futures were down by 0.48 percent at 1.5852 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack
was trading at $17.91 a barrel, up from $17.50 a barrel.
NAPHTHA
There were no naphtha cargo trades.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.