Northwest European gasoline refining margins rose steeply on Thursday as European and U.S stocks fell. Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell 3% to 1.1 million tonnes in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

Naphtha stocks increased by 56% compared with the last week due to incoming cargoes after several weeks of subdued imports amid reports of problems with gasoline blending.

Gasoline inventories dropped by 3% amid increasing exports to West Africa and the United States. Gasoline stocks fell by about 2 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 435,000-barrel gain. Refinery crude runs rose by 190,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI rose by 1.4 percentage points.

HollyFrontier Corp's profit fell short of Wall Street expectations for the first time in six quarters on Thursday, as the US refiner was pinched by higher expenses from heavy maintenance and a slump in refining margins. Colonial Pipeline Co COLPI.UL is allocating space for Cycle 14 shipments on Line 1, its main gasoline line, the company said in a notice sent to shippers on Thursday.