Gasoline stocks in ARA trading hub dip 14%, east-west arb narrows

London, (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) – Gasoline stocks in the European trading hub of Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp fell 14% on the week and remain 30% down on the year, according to market sources citing data from Insights Global.

Stocks were said to be just under 1 million barrels, compared with almost 1.14 million a week earlier.

The drawdown in stocks comes as the spread between US gasoline and European gasoline has narrowed sharply in the past week, falling from $27/mt to $20/mt on largely weak US gasoline prices.

Refining margins for gasoline versus Brent futures have fallen $4/mt from $22.70/b to $18.70/b, after the US continued to post large stock build last week amid a ramp up in refinery rates.

Meanwhile, gasoline cracks in Europe have been slipping over the same period – with Eurobob E5 falling from $8.58/b to $7.90/b, according to Quantum data.

Refinery utilisation rates in the US were 92.6% last week, despite a rally in global crude prices, leaving gasoline stocks at 243 million barrels, up 2 million barrels, and offsetting a 1% rise in gasoline deliveries to 9.4 million bpd

Elsewhere, stocks of naphtha and jet both fell 7% to 250,000 barrels and 1 million barrels, respectively, while stocks of gasoil and fuel oil rose more than 10% on the week, sources said.