Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline refining margins fall

LONDON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refinery profit margins fell by 62 cents on Thursday to about $8.63 a barrel despite a drop in regional inventories.

• About 6,000 metric tons of E5 gasoline barges traded in the Argus window on Thursday as Exxon Mobil and BP sold to TotalEnergies.

• And a further 4,000 tons of Eurobob E10 gasoline barges traded as Trafigura bought from Sahara and Shell.

• Gasoline stocks held independently in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage hub fell by 5.7% on the week, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed on Thursday.

• Gasoline stocks stood at 1.28 million tons, and fell as exports ticked higher with cargoes of the motor fuel going to Saudi Arabia, East and West Africa, Insights Global's Lars van Wageningen said.

• Dangote Petroleum Refinery's crude distillation unit (CDU) and gasoline block were back online and running at the plant's 650,000 barrel per day capacity during 72‑hour performance tests carried out with Honeywell UOP HON.O, the refinery said late on Wednesday.

• Meanwhile, EU-27 and UK gasoline and blending component exports to other regions have averaged 648,000 barrels per day so far in February, against 884,000 bpd in January.