Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline firm as crude slide, stocks draw

LONDON, Oct (HKSE: 3366-OL.HK - news) 20 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose on Thursday after crude futures fell by over 2 percent and stocks in ARA drew.

* Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub slightly declined in the week to Thursday to 636,000 tonnes, falling to 20 percent below levels of a year ago, Dutch consultancy PJK International said.

* Cracks are also supported by demand for the motor fuel from the United States and for reformate from China, traders said.

* Reuters shipping data shows around 450,000 tonnes of reformate was booked to load in Europe in October to go the east, but market participants said the actual volumes done may be significantly higher.

* Water levels along the Rhine river remained low, limiting barge loading capacity to about 30 percent and pushing freight rates higher, PJK analyst Patrick Kulsen said.

* BASF said on Wednesday it would gradually restart production of key petrochemical sites at its Ludwigshafen headquarters after a deadly fire and explosion on Monday had forced it to close them.

* BASF said it declared force majeure for the purchase of naphtha, ethylene and propylene, freeing it from contractual liabilities towards external suppliers of the chemicals.

* The site consumes around 150,000 tonnes of naphtha a month, traders said.

GASOLINE

* No barge trades of benchmark Eurobob gasoline emerged in the afternoon trading window. A bid surfaced at $489 a tonne fob ARA, down from trading levels of $501 a tonne on Wednesday.

* Elsewhere during the day, 10,000 tonnes traded at $500-$509 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, down from $505-508 a tonne on Wednesday. BP and Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) sold to Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) and Varo.

* Rolympus sold to Total a barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $520 a tonne fob ARA, down from $525 a tonne.

* The November swap stood at around $491 a tonne at the close, lower by $10 a tonne from Wednesday's level.

* Gasoline barge refining margins rose to $9.37 a barrel, from $8.68 a barrel on Wednesday.

* Brent crude oil futures for December delivery were down $1.20 at $51.47 by 1537 GMT.

* U.S. November RBOB gasoline futures were trading at $1.4810 a gallon, down 2.15 percent.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was slightly higher at $11.63 a barrel.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* Glencore (Frankfurt: 8GC.F - news) sold to BASF a cargo at $444 a tonne cif NWE, down from a deal the previous day where BASF was the buyer at $452 a tonne.

(Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar)