Distillate flows into Europe's Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp storage and refining hub fell in the week to Dec. 13, according to data from industry monitor Genscape.
Stocks had already fallen in the week to Thursday to their lowest since May 2014, data from Dutch consultancy PJK International showed.
Additionally, cargoes of distillates have loaded in Europe for Latin America, including the Cielo Di Salerno which loaded diesel in ARA for Argentina and the Amalia, which loaded in Primorsk, according to traders and Reuters shipping data.
This, along with good demand inside Europe amid colder weather, has helped underpin margins.
Ineos had restarted the 65,000 bpd crude unit it shut at its 200,000 bpd Grangemouth refinery amid an unplanned outage at its Forties North Sea crude pipeline, but sources said maintenance work on other units could still be moved forward.
Algeria's Sonatrach awarded its tender to buy six cargoes, or 180,000 tonnes, of 0.1 percent gasoil in January to Litasco, a trade source said.
The premium of diesel over fuel oil averaged $23 per barrel last week, up from close to $10 per barrel in the middle of the year, according to analysts at Barclays.
The bank said this should help complex refiners book additional margin to offset the impact of lower benchmark margins.
Rising crude prices have weighed on refinery margins in Europe, which hit a new low since 2016 on Thursday of $3 per barrel.
Republican US Senator Ted Cruz has proposed putting a cap on renewable fuel credits at 10 cents each, according to a document provided to the White House and corn-state lawmakers viewed by Reuters on Friday.
GASOIL
Gasoil barges traded at discounts of $6.75 a tonne fob ARA versus January diesel futures.
No barges of gasoil with 50-ppm sulphur content traded.
The January contract was trading at $562 a tonne, 50 cents above Thursday's close.
The January contract traded $1.50 a tonne below the February contract, 50 cents wider.
The January diesel refining margin to Brent crude futures was 1.37 percent higher at $12.3947 a barrel.
DIESEL
Diesel barges traded at 75 cent discounts fob ARA to January diesel futures, compared with discounts of 50 to 75 cents in Thursday's trades.
Glencore sold to BP and Shell.
No cargoes traded.
JET FUEL
Two barges traded at premiums of $38 a tonne fob ARA to the January diesel futures, compared with $37.50-$38 a tonne on Thursday. Gunvor sold both to Shell.
No cargoes traded. Bids came as high as $42 a tonne above January diesel, while one offer also came to a $42 a tonne premium.
FUEL OIL
Barges of fuel oil with 3.5 percent sulphur content traded at $340-$341 a tonne fob ARA, up from $336-$337.75 a tonne on Thursday.