Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins slip as ARA inventories build

LONDON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe eased on Thursday as stocks in the ARA storage hub climbed, but continued export demand gave cracks a floor.

* Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub rose by over 6 percent in the week to Thursday, Dutch consultancy PJK International said.

* But the upcoming European autumn refinery maintenance season is expected to help soak up some of the supply excess.

* 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 .

* In a move that could spur more spot gasoline cargo demand from Europe, the Brazilian government has no plans to extend a tax exemption for ethanol sales that expires in December as it pushes to rebalance the country's depleted public accounts.

* Lifting the exemption is likely to spur an increase in Brazilian gasoline imports to meet greater demand for the fuel as ethanol demand falls.

* Shell (LSE: RDSB.L - news) said it expected increased flaring at its 404,000 barrels-per-day Pernis refinery in the Netherlands on Friday evening, linked to a unit coming online.

GASOLINE

* There were no Eurobob trades during the afternoon trading window. There was a bid at $487 a tonne fob ARA, up from a bid at $484 a tonne the previous day.

* Some 12,000 tonnes traded throughout the day at $478-$485 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with $480-$486 a tonne on Wednesday. Gunvor sold to Rolympus, Shell, Finco, Glencore (Amsterdam: GX8.AS - news) and BP.

* Rolympus sold a barge of premium unleaded gasoline to Total (LSE: 524773.L - news) at $503 a tonne fob ARA, up from $491 a tonne on Tuesday.

* The September swap stood at around $490 a tonne at the close, up from $484 a tonne.

* Gasoline barge refining margins fell to $9.19 a barrel from $9.58 a barrel on Wednesday.

* Brent crude oil futures were up 35 cents at $49.40 a barrel by 1540 GMT.

* U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . August RBOB gasoline futures were down 0.79 percent at 1.4976 a gallon.

* The U.S. gasoline crack (RB-CL1=R) was trading at $12.33 a barrel, little changed.

NAPHTHA (NAF-C-NWE)

* BP sold to Gunvor and BASF sold to Statoil (LSE: 0M2Z.L - news) . Both trades were completed at $399 a tonne cif NWE. (Reporting by Ahmad Ghaddar)