Northwest European gasoline refining margins ended the week around 8% lower at $23.7 a barrel following a strong rally in crude prices and as exports from the region slowed.

Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 6.2% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Several cargoes of gasoline blending components arrived from the Middle East over the week, boosting stocks, said Insights Global’s Lars van Wageningen.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell last week by 2.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 950,000-barrel drop.

Gasoline exports from Europe to the United States declined in August to an estimated 709,000 metric tons from 973,000 tons in July as the peak driving season subsided, LSEG analyst Raj Rajendran said in a note.

Exports to West Africa dropped to 775,000 tons from 823,000 tons in July.

The gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) was shut at Marathon Petroleum’s 593,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Galveston Bay Refinery in Texas City, Texas, after a fire on Thursday night, said three people familiar with the plant.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ron Bousso;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)