LONDON: Northwest European gasoline refining margins fell slightly on Friday but a drop in regional stocks capped losses.

Gasoline stocks in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by 10% in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

The drop was because of strong inland demand from Germany and Switzerland on the back of lower refinery runs after Russian oil contamination and maintenance, Insight Global’s Patrick Kulsen said.

More than a million tonnes of contaminated oil from Russia’s Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline, expected to be shipped back from Belarus, will end up at Russian refineries and export ports after being diluted to usable levels, sources have told Reuters.—Reuters