Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Cracks down amid weak exports

LONDON, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline
refining margins fell on Thursday amid weak exports, shrugging
off a continually weak crude price and falling inventories on
both sides of the Atlantic.
* Oil prices plunged more than 4% on Thursday, down for a
fifth
day to their lowest since January 2019 as more new coronavirus
cases outside China fed fears of a pandemic that could slow the
global economy and dent demand for crude.
* Northwestern European gasoline stocks fell 6% to 1.12
million
tonnes as exports outpaced imports, data from Dutch consultancy
Insights Global showed on Thursday.
* U.S. gasoline stocks fell last week by 2.7 million barrels
in
the week to 256.4 million barrels, EIA data showed, compared
with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.2 million barrel
drop.?
* So far in February, some 288,000 tonnes of gasoline and
blending
components have been delivered from Europe and the Mediterranean
to the United States, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
* The exports last month were 710,000 tonnes and in February
2019
730,000 tonnes.
* Saudi Aramco will shut its largest oil refinery for five
to six
weeks from June 1. The 550,000 bpd Ras Tanura refinery supplies
over a quarter of the kingdom's fuel supply.
* The company is undertaking a $2.4 billion overhaul of Ras
Tanura
to reduce the sulphur content of the gasoline and diesel the
refinery produces.


Gasoline (in tonnes)
Trades Bids Offers Prev. Sellers Buyers
(vol.) Trades
Ebob $456 $461
Barges
MOC
Platts E5
(fob ARA)
<EUROBOB-
ARA>
Ebob $454
Barges
E10
Platts(fo
b ARA)
Ebob $452-$46 $493-$493 Gunvor, Varo,
Barges 7 .50 Vitol Exxon,
Argus Total,
E5(fob Gunvor
AR)
Ebob $473 $506.50-$ Total Shell
Barges 507
E10 Argus
(fob AR)
March. $458.50 $494.50
swap fob
ARA
Premium $473 $510 Finco Gunvor
Unleaded
(fob ARA)
<PU-10PP-
ARA>
Cargoes
(fob MED)

Cargoes
(cif NWE)
Naphtha $422
(cif NWE)
<NAF-C-NW
E>
Ebob crack (per barrel) $2.689 prev. $5.216
Brent futures
Rbob
Rbob crack <RBc1-CLc1>

(Reporting by Shadia Nasralla; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)