Europe Gasoline/Naphtha-Gasoline refining margins jump to multi-year highs

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refinery profit margins shot up $8.49 to $30.59 a barrel on Friday, their highest since August 2023, as the price of oil dipped.

• A total of 24,000 metric tons of E5 gasoline barges traded in the Argus window as BP, Shell, Gunvor and Equinor sold to TotalEnergies.

• An additional 8,000 tons of E10 gasoline barges changed hands, with Shell and Sahara selling to TotalEnergies, Exxon and Trafigura.

• TotalEnergies' Donges refinery, which represents 20% of France's crude refining capacity, went offline on April 27 for a two-month planned maintenance stop. The refinery is France's second-largest, capable of refining about 11 million tons of crude a year.

• In the U.S., motorists were paying $6 a gallon for gasoline in California on Thursday, the highest price in two years ahead of the summer driving season.

• The Trump administration said it was looking to loan energy companies up to 92.5 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to calm the oil markets.

• Meawhile, EU-27 and UK exports of gasoline and blending components stood at 858,000 bpd in April, compared to 977,000 in March, data from Kpler showed.