Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline steady as Atlantic basin stocks drop

LONDON, March 20 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refining profit margins were largely stable at $5.30 a barrel on Thursday, even as inventories on both sides of the Atlantic drew down.

• A total of 2,000 metric tons of E5 gasoline barges traded as Vitol sold to TotalEnergies.

• Another 6,000 tons of Eurobob E10 traded as TotalEnergies sold Musket, Varo and Shell.

• Gasoline stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by over 5% on the week to 1.4 million tons, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

• U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by about 530,000 barrels last week to 240.6 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.2 million-barrel draw.​

• EU and UK gasoline and blending component exports are on track to reach 718,000 barrels per day in March, according to Kpler data, down from 894,000 bpd in February.