Northwest European gasoline refining margins declined slightly on Monday but held near an eight-month high as exports from the region continued. Gasoline exports from the region rose in recent days thanks to an open arbitrage to the US East Coast, traders said.
Refinery outages and seasonal maintenance have provided strong support for gasoline recently after weeks of weakness because of rising global stocks. The LR2 Pacific Anna, with a 93,000 tonne cargo of F2 gasoline, was diverted last week to Point Tupper in Nova Scotia from its original destination of New York, according to Kpler. The vessel had been floating with its cargo for nearly three months until April 8, it said.
Gasoline stocks in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub dropped by 4.5 percent in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global, previously PJK International, showed. Low water levels on Rhine in Germany have severely hampered the movement of gasoline barges this week.
The European naphtha market is under pressure from weak demand amid maintenance at three major petrochemical plants as well as cheap availability of competing LPG feedstock, traders said.
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