Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe regained some ground on Thursday amid sliding crude oil futures and still-strong demand in West Africa. Traders said demand was somewhat precarious, with limited exports to the United States due to high stocks in that region. Asian demand for Europe's aromatics was also in question due to a new invoicing system for imports as of March 1 in China that traders said could cut demand.
Gasoline stocks in independently held storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub rose by nearly 11 percent to their highest since July 2016, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed on Thursday. PJK's Lars van Wageningen said exports to West Africa had slowed over the course of the week, while some unusual imports had arrived in ARA from Russia.
He said several Aframax vessels were loading gasoline for export and export fixtures were "still quite busy". Total bought six additional barges of premium unleaded gasoline barges in the afternoon trading window, which sources said was an effort to build cargoes to ship to West Africa. No barges of eurobob gasoline traded in the afternoon window. Bids came in at $590 a tonne. Elsewhere during the day, 16,000 tonnes of ebob traded at $593.50-$599 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, up from $578-$585 a tonne on Wednesday.
Total bought a further six barges of premium unleaded gasoline from Statoil at $609 a tonne fob ARA. On Thursday, it purchased 16 at $599-$600 a tonne. The March swap stood at $590 a tonne at the close, up from $580 a tonne. The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin rose to $8.19 a barrel, up from $5.97 a barrel. Brent crude futures were 40 cents lower at $63.96 a barrel by 1713 GMT.
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