Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins slide despite inventory fall

LONDON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refining profit margins fell sharply on Thursday to $7.84 a barrel despite a drop in regional inventories as export demand remained lacklustre.

• A total of 6,000 metric tons of E5 gasoline barges traded, as TotalEnergies and Trafigura sold barges to ExxonMobil and BP.

• Another 4,000 tons of Eurobob E10 barges traded as Trafigura and Sahara sold barges to BP and Varo.

• Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by 4% on the week, their second decline in a row, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

• Gasoline stocks stood at 1.46 million metric tons, falling on higher exports, Insights Global's Lars van Wageningen said.

• U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 151,000 barrels last week to 247.9 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 6,000-barrel draw.

• UK and EU gasoline exports are on track to reach 883,000 barrels per day in February, compared with 905,000 bpd in January, Kpler data show.