LONDON: Northwest European gasoline refining margins reached a one-month high on Tuesday, tracking hikes in US RBOB cracks, amid expectations of improving transatlantic arbitrage economics.
Refinery outages in the US including at BP's Whiting, Indiana and Marathon's Robinson, Illinois, have boosted margins in the United States, traders said.
The transatlantic gasoline arbitrage from Europe remained difficult to work, according to market sources, but the US refinery shutdowns could help making it more economic.
Arrivals of western-origin naphtha in Asia stood at 800,000-900,000 tonnes in August, largely flat to July, but down from the year-to-date monthly average of about 1.38 million tonnes amid unfavourable arbitrage economics, according to assessments by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain & Commodities Research.
BP said it plans to begin a partial shutdown on Aug. 15 at its 266,000 barrels-per-day Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany that is likely to last until early October.
BP declined to comment on the units involved in the turnaround.
Shipments of crude and refined oil products from Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi fell 11.8 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2016, a senior official at the terminal said on Monday.
GASOLINE
Gunvor sold a barge to Varo Energy at $417 a tonne fob ARA, up from trades at $411 a tonne on Monday.
Another 11,000 tonnes traded throughout the day at $415-$424 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with trades at $411-$423 a tonne on Monday.
Gunvor sold to Statoil, Shell, Finco and Varo. Statoil sold to Rolympus.
Two barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $434 a tonne fob ARA, compared with trades at $430-$432 a tonne on Monday.
Vitol and Rolympus sold to Total.
Gasoline barge refining margins rose to $9.85 a barrel from $9.35 a barrel.
The September swap stood at around $418 a tonne at the close, up from $415 a tonne. * Brent crude oil futures fell by 53 cents a barrel to $41.61 a barrel by 1548 GMT.
US August RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.22 percent at 1.3007 a gallon.
The US gasoline crack was trading at $15.18 a barrel, up from $14.15 a barrel on Monday.
NAPHTHA
Glencore sold a cargo to Koch at $330 a tonne cif NWE.
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