Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline profit margins decline

LONDON, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline profit margins fell 74 cents to $15.71 a barrel on Thursday despite a fall in stockpiles and outages in the United States.

• A total of 4,000 metric tons of Eurobob E10 barges traded in the session, with Phillips 66 selling to MB Energy and Varo.

• A total of 12,000 tons of E5 barges traded, with Gunvor and Exxon selling to Varo, Aramco and Trafigura.

• Gasoline stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell around 6.7% on the week to 1.05 million tons on steady demand in Northern Europe and higher exports, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

• Shell SHEL.L shut the gasoline-producing resid catalytic cracking unit (RCCU) at its 231,827 barrel-per-day (bpd) Norco, Louisiana, refinery to begin a planned overhaul a month earlier than scheduled, people familiar with plant operations said on Wednesday.

• Additionally, production on the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit (FCCU) was shut by a malfunction at Valero Energy's VLO.N 380,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas refinery on Wednesday.

• Russia intends to extend a ban on gasoline exports until the end of September, from the end of August, Interfax news agency reported citing unnamed sources.

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