Northwest European gasoline refining margins fell to about $33 a barrel on Friday, as weakening export economics to the United States weighed.

Exports from northwest Europe to the United States so far in August fell heavily from a week ago after a number of loadings planned for last week failed, with shipments now estimated at 587,000 metric tons, down from 740,000 tons planned previously, latest Refinitiv data showed.

“An unexpectedly smaller U.S. gasoline inventory draw, higher refinery runs and lacklustre demand combined to just about shut the transatlantic arbitrage for now,” Refinitiv analyst Raj Rajendran said.

Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 10% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Gasoline inventories rose to 1.45 million metric tons as exports from the region slowed and demand up the Rhine weakened, said Insights Global’s Lars van Wageningen.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 261,000 barrels in the week to 216.2 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel drop.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)