Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose slightly after a dip in crude prices on Wednesday, but high US inventories of the motor fuel weighed on export economics from the Europe. US gasoline stocks were unchanged last week, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1 million-barrel draw, Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday.
Transatlantic exports from Europe had already begun slowing down due to weaker US demand, and the flat stocks further dented export hopes. Industry monitor Genscape said it detected increased heating activity on a 200,000 barrel per day (bpd) crude distillation unit at Shell's 404,000 bpd Pernis oil refinery.
The refinery shut most units on July 30 after a fire on a power station Shell said it aims to restart most of the units at the refinery before the end of the month, but wouldn't comment further on the individual status of units at the site. Vitol sold barges of eurobob gasoline to Shell at $534 a tonne fob ARA during the afternoon trading window.
Elsewhere 8,000 tonnes traded at $536-$537.50 a tonne fob Amsterdam- Rotterdam, up from $531-$532.50 a tonne on Tuesday. Gunvor and Total sold to Shell and BP. Varo sold a barge of premium unleaded gasoline to Total at $542 a tonne fob ARA. The September swap stood at $531.50 a tonne at the close, up from $529 a tonne.
The benchmark ebob gasoline refining margin stood at $13.58 a barrel, up from $13.02 a barrel on Tuesday. Brent crude futures were down 16 cents at $50.64 a barrel by 1600 GMT. US front-month RBOB gasoline futures were 0.22 percent lower at 1.5761 a gallon. The RBOB crack versus US crude stood at $18.98 a barrel, up from $18.79 a barrel at the previous close.