Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline cracks drop on lower demand

LONDON, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline profit margins fell by about $1.5 to $16.31 a barrel on Friday as trading activity remained subdued.

• A total of 4,000 metric tons of Eurobob E5 barges traded, which Equinor sold to Gunvor and Vitol.

• No Eurobob E10 barges traded on Friday.

• The restart of a gasoline making unit at a major US refinery also weighed on margins.

• Exxon Mobil XOM.M restarted the gasoline-producing fluidic catalytic cracking unit on Thursday at its 612,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Beaumont, Texas, refinery, people familiar with plant operations said.

• ARA gasoline stocks fell by 2.6% to 1.19 million tons over the week to Thursday, according to data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global.

• The drop came as large export cargoes to the Americas and West Africa removed storage from ARA tanks, van Wageningen added. ARA/

• The gasoline unit at Nigeria's Dangote oil refinery is tentatively expected to restart on October 14 following maintenance, industry monitor IIR said on Thursday.

• EU and UK gasoline exports to other regions averaged 779,000 bpd in October so far, according to Kpler data, compared with 918,000 bpd in September.

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