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Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins up on U.S. hurricane fears, oil price dip
LONDON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe rose sharply as oil futures sunk and in reaction to perceived tightening of U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . supplies due to hurricane fears and an outage at a major refinery, which could mean demand for more European product.
* Further gains were tempered by U.S. data showing a small gain in gasoline stocks versus an expected large draw. A significant gain in crude stocks weighed heavily on oil futures.
* U.S. Gulf Coast cash gasoline markets surged in early trading on Wednesday on reports that a tropical storm in the Caribbean will reach hurricane strength before it hits the country's largest energy producing region, traders said.
* Repairs on a fluidic catalytic converter unit at ExxonMobil's 560,500 barrel per day Baytown refinery were continuing on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. The 90,000 bpd unit was shut on Aug. 16.
* The gasoline and naphtha glut that has plagued refiners for most of the year should start to ease with the upcoming maintenance season.
* European refinery turnarounds are set to peak at around 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in mid-September, less than half the volume that was out during the same period last year but globally, the turnaround outage will be larger at roughly 7 percent of global refinery throughput .
* Naphtha supplies have tightened owing to lower Russian exports but that was balanced out by lower Asian demand, one trader said.
GASOLINE
* There were no Eurobob trades during the afternoon trading window. There was a bid at $484 a tonne fob ARA but no offers.
* Some 16,000 tonnes traded in the morning at $480-$486 a tonne fob ARA, up from $474-$475 a tonne fob ARA on Tuesday. Gunvor, Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) and Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) sold to Rolympus, Varo, Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) Trafigura and BP.
* There were two trades of premium unleaded gasoline barges both at $491 a tonne fob ARA, lower than discussions of $495-$497 a tonne fob ARA the previous day.
* The September swap stood at around $484 a tonne at the close, up from $489.50 a tonne.
* Gasoline barge refining margins rose over $2 to their highest level since Aug. 8 at 10.08 a barrel, up from $7.73 a barrel around the same time on Tuesday.
* Brent crude oil futures were down $1.13 cents at $48.83 a barrel by 1547 GMT.
* U.S. August RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.61 percent at 1.4897 a gallon.
* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was trading at $12.36 a barrel.
NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)
* There was no activity in the window. In the previous session, a cargo traded at $397 a tonne cif NWE. (Reporting by Julia Payne; Editing by Adrian Croft; For ARA oilstock data click on ; For European oilstock data click on ; For swaps prices double click on :; Graphic: Global refined oil stocks (KSE: 012750.KS - news) (http://tmsnrt.rs/2br1O3U))
