Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Cracks fall as governments ban travel

LONDON, March 23 (Reuters) - Northwestern European gasoline refining margins fell on Monday as the coronavirus outbreak forced more businesses to close and drove governments to tighten restrictions on travel and demand people stay at home. U.S. oil refiners are expected to have 526,000 barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline for the week ending March 27, increasing available refining capacity by 340,000 bpd from the previous week, research company IIR Energy said on Monday. * Motiva Enterprises restarted the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracker (FCC) and the lube oil hydrocracker over the weekend at its 607,000 bpd Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, said sources familiar with plant operations. Motiva restarted the 81,000-bpd FCC on Saturday and the 19,200 bpd lube oil hydrocracker on Sunday, the sources said. * ExxonMobil Corp plans to shut the large crude distillation unit (CDU) at its 369,024 bpd Beaumont, Texas, refinery on Monday to start a planned multi-unit overhaul, said sources familiar with plant operations on Monday. * On Saturday, ExxonMobil cut production at its 502,500 bpd Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery as poor demand has pushed up inventories and filled storage tanks, said sources familiar with plant operations. Gasoline (in tonnes) Trades Bids Offers Prev. Sellers Buyers (vol.) Trades Ebob $149 Barges MOC Platts E5 (fob ARA) <EUROBO B-ARA> Ebob Barges E10 Platts( fob ARA) Ebob $136 Shell Gunvor Barges (1KT) Argus E5(fob AR) Ebob $135.50 $199 Finco Gunvor Barges (2KT) E10 Argus (fob AR) April $163 $208.50 swap fob ARA Premium Unleade d (fob ARA) <PU-10P P-ARA> Cargoes (fob MED) Cargoes (cif NWE) Naphtha (cif NWE) <NAF-C- NWE> Ebob crack (per barrel) -$7.025 prev. -$2.318 Brent futures Rbob Rbob crack <RBc1-CLc1> (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; editing by Barbara Lewis)