LONDON: Gasoline refining margins in northwest Europe slipped on Friday.

Barge brokers said demand to bring gasoline up the Rhine to the ARA region for export is strong, while shipments to Latin America and the United States have risen from recent weeks.

Still, exports were not strong enough to maintain margins; The northwest European gasoline crack halved during the week to Friday to $3.5 per barrel, the lowest level since late 2014, according to Jefferies.

US gasoline stocks rose by 2.5 million barrels last week, according to US Energy Information Administration data.

The gain put US gasoline inventories 9.5 million barrels above the 5-year average.

ARA gasoline stocks fell slightly this week to 1.323 million tonnes, PJK International’s Lars van Wageningen said.

One barge of eurobob gasoline traded at $576 a tonne fob ARA, down from $594 a tonne on Thursday. Gunvor sold to Shell.

Elsewhere, a whopping 36,000 tonnes on gasoline barges traded, which a broker said was the highest one-day volume since 2015.

Prices ranged from $576-$600 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam, compared with deals at $589 a tonne fob Amsterdam-Rotterdam the previous day.

Gunvor sold to Total one barge of premium unleaded gasoline at $614 a tonne fob ARA, down from $619 a tonne the previous day.

The April swap stood at $630.50 a tonne at the close, compared with $632.40 a tonne the previous day.

The benchmark EBOB gasoline refining margin declined to $4.77 a barrel from $5.36 a barrel a day earlier.

Brent crude futures were 27 cents higher at $64.09 a barrel by 1715 GMT.—Reuters