Northwest European diesel barge refining margins fell by over $1 a barrel on the day to $19.41 a barrel on Friday, but were on track to end the week virtually unchanged.

Five 10ppm diesel barges traded in the Platts window on Friday, down from six on Thursday. Shell and ExxonMobil sold barges to Glencore and BP.

Lower inventories and slowing imports have been supporting margins.

Independently-held gasoil inventories in Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) fell by nearly 3% in the week to June 27 to just under 2.2 million metric tons, according to data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global.

EU and UK diesel and gasoil imports are on track to reach 985,000 barrels per day (bpd) in June, Kpler data showed, down from 1.24 million bpd in May.

In the Mediterranean market, traders expect the diesel-making hydrocracker at Socar’s STAR refinery in Turkey to come back online early next week. The outage on the unit started in early June.

The Atyrau oil refinery in western Kazakhstan was working normally after a fire that hit a hydrogen-producing unit was put out, the plant’s press service said on Friday.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar)