Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline refining margins jump on lower stocks

LONDON, March 19 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refinery profit margins rose sharply by about $7 to $18.87 a barrel on Thursday, buoyed by lower Atlantic basin inventories and new attacks on refineries in the Middle East.

• About 22,000 metric tons of E10 gasoline barges traded in the Argus window as TotalEnergies, Sahara and Trafigura sold to Varo, Glencore, and Sahara.

• An additional 10,000 tons of E5 gasoline barges traded in the session, with Sahara and Equinor selling to Shell and TotalEnergies.

• Gasoline stocks in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub fell around 13% to 1.18 million metric tons on high export volumes, according to Dutch consultancy Insight Global.

• U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 5.4 million barrels in the week to 244 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.6 million-barrel draw.​

• An Iranian missile attack hit Israel's Oil Refineries ORL.TA in the northern port city of Haifa but did not cause "significant damage", Israel's Energy Ministry said on Thursday.

• BP BP.L said on Thursday it would sell its German oil refinery site in Gelsenkirchen to investment firm Klesch Group for an undisclosed sum and raised its cost reduction target, in the latest move to simplify its portfolio and shore up its balance sheet.

• Oil giant Saudi Aramco's SAMREF refinery in the Red Sea port of Yanbu was targeted in an aerial attack on Thursday, an industry source said, adding there was minimal impact, after other attacks on energy facilities in Qatar and the UAE in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iranian energy installations.