Northwest European gasoline refining profit margins rose by around 57 cents on Friday to $7.11 in the first trading session following the two-day Christmas break, as gasoline stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) hub fell from the highest in over a year.

Around 6,000 tons of Eurobob E5 barges traded. Shell and Trafigura sold to Gunvor and Mabanaft.

In the Platts window, Trafigura offered a Mediterranean gasoline cargo. No buyers emerged and no trades were concluded.

Gasoline inventories independently held in ARA storage fell by 1% on the week to 1.36 million tons, though remaining at their highest level in over a year, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Gasoline cargoes arrived in ARA from the Baltics, Scandinavia and the Mediterranean, while cargoes departed for the Americas and other European regions, according to Insights Global.

Meanwhile, overall EU and UK gasoline exports were set to drop in December to 942,000 bpd from 1.13 million bpd in November, according to Kpler.
Source: Reuters