European gasoline margins little changed

Northwest European gasoline refining margins were little changed on Thursday as rising supplies in the United States weighed on cracks. Gasoline barge margins in northwest Europe remained near a 14-month low around $3.5 a barrel as overseas buying, particularly from the US East Coast slowed.
ARA gasoline stocks declined slightly in the week to Thursday to 869,000 tonnes, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International. Despite slower exports to the US East Coast, strong cracks in Asia of around $15 a barrel meant exports from Europe were likely to remain elevated, Vienna-based consultancy JBC Energy said.
US gasoline stocks rose 6.8 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. That was much more than a Reuters poll forecast for a 1.7 million-barrel gain. Over 450,000 tonnes of gasoline have been provisionally booked to go to Nigeria in the past week, according to traders and shipping data.
The European naphtha market was seen balanced for the rest of December before tightening in Q1 2018 with the arbitrage to the east open, according to traders. Gunvor sold to Shell a barge of eurobob gasoline at $580 a tonne fob ARA, unchanged from Wednesday's trades.
Some 5,000 tonnes traded elsewhere at $577-$580 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $573-$584 a tonne the previous day. BP and Total sold to Gunvor, Varo and Vitol. Shell sold to Gunvor a barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $591 tonne fob ARA, up from $580 a tonne.
The January swap stood at $579.50 per tonne at the close, up from $573 a tonne. The benchmark EBOB gasoline margin was little changed at $3.54 a barrel compared with $3.44 a barrel at the previous close.