Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline margins fall as inventories swell

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refining profit margins fell sharply by over $2 a barrel to $5.43 on Thursday as a big rise in regional inventories weighed.

• A total of 4,000 metric tons of E5 gasoline barges traded, as Litasco and Varo sold barges to Varo and Mabanaft.

• A further 14,000 tons of Eurobob E10 traded, as Musket, Trafigura, TotalEnergies and Petroineos sold to Shell and BP.

• Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub rose by 12% on the week to a one-month high 1.65 million metric tons on Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

• Gasoline stocks rose on slower exports and even though demand from inland locations was firm, Insight Global's Lars van Wageningen said.

• Meanwhile, US gasoline stocks by 1.4 million barrels last week to 246.8 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 369,000-barrel draw.