Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline refining profit margins soften

LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refinery profit margins fell 42 cents to $9.26 a barrel on Monday despite lower regional inventories.

• About 14,000 metric tons of Eurobob E5 gasoline traded on barges in the Argus window as ExxonMobil sold to Shell and BP.

• In the Platts window, Gunvor sold a barge to a Varo.

• Another 4,000 tons of Eurobob E10 gasoline barges traded in the session, with Gunvor and BP selling to Varo.

• Refined oil product stocks independently held in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by nearly 4% in the week to December 25, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed on Monday.

• Total stocks stood at 5.77 million metric tons, the data showed.

• Gasoline stocks fell 10% to about 1.1 million tons on firm export activity to West Africa, Insights Global's Lars van Wageningen said.

• Meanwhile, EU-27 and UK gasoline exports to other regions have averaged 738,000 barrels per day so far this month, down from 943,000 bpd across the full month of November.