Northwest European gasoline refining margins rose to $11.49 a barrel on Thursday, their highest since late August, pushed up by lower than expected US inventories. FGE energy analysts forecast further draws in product inventories on rising demand, particulary in the third quarter.
FGE said the IEA now expects global refinery runs to grow by a mere 0.7 million barrels a day in the whole of 2019, a big revision from last month's report (+1.2 mln b/d) and only half of FGE forecast (+1.39 mln b/d). The IEA's forecast appears exceptionally low, FGE added, pointing out a previous IEA expectation of 2.6 mln bpd of new capacity this year.
Gasoline stocks in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub registered a small uptick, with fewer exports going to the United States as strong transatlantic demand from recent weeks subsided somewhat, said Insights Global's Lars van Wageningen.