US gasoline stocks fell by 1.1 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 299,000-barrel drop.

Transatlantic demand has fallen from strong levels, traders said.

ARA gasoline prices were supported by strong demand from inland buyers in Germany where a string of refinery outages has led to a shortage in local production, traders and brokers said.

The outages at the Leuna and PKN refineries in Germany were due to lower crude processing as a result of disruption in the Druzhba crude pipeline from Russia, the traders said.

Russia has begun shipping clean oil via the Baltic after a contamination problem disrupted flows for three weeks. It is working to resume pipeline supplies to Europe, although traders said this might take several more weeks to fix.

Polish pipeline operator PERN will resume the flow of Russian oil if requested to by its refinery clients, PERN's chief executive said on Tuesday, as refiners attempt to manage the fallout from contaminated Russian oil supplies.