LONDON, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Gasoline barge cracks innorthwest Europe fell on Tuesday, tracking a decline in U.S.gasoline futures that diminished opportunities for spot exportsof the motor fuel while demand remained weak at home. "Gasoline is slowly coming off again. Asia side is morehealthy but Ebob cracks are drifting," said one swaps trader. Gasoline cracks had recovered in recent weeks, after sinkinginto negative territory in mid-December, but have remained atrelatively weak levels. A flow of gasoline to the United States to compensate forrefinery outages caused by the cold weather had offered somesupport to European gasoline last week, but has fallen off sinceCanada's Come by Chance refinery reopened. In new fixtures, one tanker was booked to carry gasoline toWest Africa, shipping data showed. Repsol booked a tanker fromSpain to the United States. Traders said it was likely to becarrying gasoline or naphtha. European refinery crude intake fell 8.6 percent in Decemberon a year ago, reflecting deep cuts in processing runs asmargins slid. Gasoline stocks rose on the month, data fromindustry monitor Euroilstock showed. Demand in Europe remains so weak that some components ofhigh-octane gasoline, or reformates, are heading to Asia, anincreasingly common arbitrage as European gasoline faces growingcompetition in its traditional export markets. "Reformate is up to 70 over Ebob in ARA. It's the high endof the scale," said the trader. "Asia has been drawing from Europe/Med for gasoline orcomponents for a while now. Historically, it is a new thing butit has been happening for at least a year or so now." In the Mediterranean, BP bid for a cargo but therewere no deals, one Med trader said. "The market is mostlybalanced," he said. Petrochemical demand for naphtha was weak, but cracks weresupported by strong Asian margins due to tight supplies. No naphtha cargoes traded in the window, traders said. GASOLINE * One barge of benchmark Eurobob gasoline traded in thePlatts window at $913 a tonne fob ARA. Total sold to Shell. * Three barges traded outside the window at $916-$922 atonne fob ARA, down from $928-$934 a tonne on Monday. Noble andTrafigura sold to Gunvor and BP. Shell sold to Noble. * At the close, the February swap was trading at $918 atonne, down from $931.25 a tonne on Monday. * Shell sold two barges of premium unleaded gasoline toTotal at $933 a tonne fob ARA, down from $947 a tonne on Monday. * By 1643 GMT, Eurobob's crack to dated Brent was at$1.952 a barrel, down from $3.198 a barrel on Monday. * Brent crude oil futures were down 49 cents at$106.26 a barrel. * U.S. RBOB gasoline futures in New York were down 1percent at $2.6078 a gallon, and the prompt crack wasat $17.24 a barrel. NAPHTHA * No cargoes traded in the window on Tuesday. * The naphtha crack swap was at around minus $3.14 a barrelfor January and minus $3.97 a barrel for February, slightlyweaker than Monday's levels.
Middle East Crude-Benchmarks fall, snapping two-day streak
SINGAPORE, May 8 (Reuters) - Middle East crude benchmarks Dubai, Oman and Murban fell on Wednesday after rising for consecutive days after Saudi Aramco and ADNOC raised official selling prices (OSPs) for term supplies in June.
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