Northwest European diesel barge refining margins eased to about $31.50 a barrel on Friday on high regional inventories, but strong buying activity limited losses.

Ten diesel barges traded in the afternoon window at slightly lower price levels to the previous session, which saw half the volume of trades.

Gasoil stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by around 15.5% in the week to Feb. 1 to 1.958 million metric tons, according to data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global.

Gasoil stocks rose to a three-week high as discharging delays due to adverse weather conditions and Red Sea disruptions eased, Insight Global’s Lars van Wageningen said.

BP said on Friday that power had been restored to its 435,000 barrel-per-day Whiting, Indiana, refinery following a power outage that disrupted operations on Thursday afternoon and forced the evacuation of numerous workers.

Operations have been stabilized at the second-largest U.S. Midwest refinery, all refinery personnel are accounted for, and no injuries have been reported, the company added.

TotalEnergies 238,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas refinery began restarting production units on Friday, said people familiar with the operations.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar; Editing by Andrea Ricci)