European gasoline margins little changed

Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe were little changed on Thursday but a rise in floating storage in West Africa weighed on the complex. An unusually large quantity of gasoline is floating off the coast of West Africa as Nigeria boosts imports to avoid shortages before a presidential election early next year.
Nearly 1.5 million tonnes of the motor fuel is on ships off West African shores, according to industry monitor Genscape, the highest level since it began tracking the data in January 2017. Gasoline stocks held in independent storage at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp refining and storage hub fell on more exports this week, as well as fewer imports compared with the previous week, according to Dutch consultancy PJK International.
US biomass-based diesel credits (D4) dropped to 55 cents each on Thursday, down from 60 cents in the previous session, traders said, after the head of the Environmental Protection Agency said refiners have filed 30 requests for exemptions this year. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in testimony to Congress that the agency has received another flurry of requests for this year's biofuels requirements, following a wave of the hardship exemptions for small refineries which were doled out for last year.
Spain's Petronor says it plans to restart a gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracker at its 220,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Bilbao oil refinery on Friday The 46,000 bpd unit was down earlier this month in an unplanned outage. There were no trades of eurobob gasoline during the afternoon trading window. A bid emerged at $699 a tonne fob ARA, up from trades at $694 and $698 a tonne the previous day.
Elsewhere, Total sold to Shell two barges of eurobob at $696 and $697.50 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with trades at $694.25-$695.25 a tonne the previous day. Three barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $706-$707 a tonne fob ARA. The May swap stood at $702 a tonne at the close, up from $696 a tonne.
The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin was little changed at $8.214 a barrel. Brent crude futures were up 58 cents at $74.58 a barrel at 1532 GMT.