Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins firms on possible arb west
LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refining margins reached a one-month high on Tuesday, tracking hikes in U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . RBOB cracks, amid expectations of improving transatlantic arbitrage economics.
* Refinery outages in the U.S. including at BP's Whiting, Indiana and Marathon's Robinson (LSE: RBN.L - news) , Illinois, have boosted margins in the United States, traders said.
* The transatlantic gasoline arbitrage from Europe remained difficult to work, according to market sources, but the U.S. refinery shutdowns could help making it more economic.
* Arrivals of western-origin naphtha in Asia stood at 800,000-900,000 tonnes in August, largely flat to July, but down from the year-to-date monthly average of about 1.38 million tonnes amid unfavourable arbitrage economics, according to assessments by Thomson Reuters Supply Chain & Commodities Research.
* BP said it plans to begin a partial shutdown on Aug. 15 at its 266,000 barrels-per-day Gelsenkirchen refinery in Germany that is likely to last until early October. BP declined to comment on the units involved in the turnaround.
* Shipments of crude and refined oil products from Georgia's Black Sea port of Batumi fell 11.8 percent year on year in the first seven months of 2016, a senior official at the terminal said on Monday.
GASOLINE
* Gunvor sold a barge to Varo Energy at $417 a tonne fob ARA, up from trades at $411 a tonne on Monday.
* Another 11,000 tonnes traded throughout the day at $415-$424 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with trades at $411-$423 a tonne on Monday. Gunvor sold to Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) , Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) , Finco and Varo. Statoil sold to Rolympus.
* Two barges of premium unleaded gasoline traded at $434 a tonne fob ARA, compared with trades at $430-$432 a tonne on Monday. Vitol and Rolympus sold to Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) .
* Gasoline barge refining margins rose to $9.85 a barrel from $9.35 a barrel.
* The September swap stood at around $418 a tonne at the close, up from $415 a tonne.
* Brent crude oil futures fell by 53 cents a barrel to $41.61 a barrel by 1548 GMT.
* U.S. August RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.22 percent at 1.3007 a gallon.
* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was trading at $15.18 a barrel, up from $14.15 a barrel on Monday.
NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)
* Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) sold a cargo to Koch at $330 a tonne cif NWE. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar, editing by Libby George)