US-European gasoline spread crunches lower after stock build
London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - The spread between US and European gasoline markets continued to crunch lower Monday to reflect large US gasoline stocks in the first week of June, data from brokers showed.
Some analysts also linked the slide in US gasoline prices to media reports suggesting the White House would step in to extend the biofuel exemption, easing the pressure of high renewable identification number values, which topped $2 on June 10.
The July east-west spread, reflecting the difference of RBOB in the New York above Eurobob E5 in ARA, fell to $24/mt, down from $28/mt on Wednesday, June 9.
US gasoline stocks jumped last week, building 7 million barrels over the week to June 4, to reach a four-month high of 241 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration.
As a crack value versus Brent, July RBOB gasoline has fallen from $23.4/mt on June 7 to $21.1/mt on June 14.
Exports of European gasoline to the US fell to a three-month low of 1.6 million mt in May, according to ship tracking company Vortexa.
But there was a rebound of exports to west Africa of 1.2 million mt, while another 550,000 mt went to Latin America, and another 310,000 mt to Canada.
Overall, around 4.6 million mt of gasoline was exported from Europe in May, a fraction more than the 4.5 million mt exported in April, despite the start of summer demand and further easing of travel restrictions.
