LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - European gasoline prices dropped
3 percent on Tuesday towards $645 a tonne, pressured by a
sell-off in crude and U.S. gasoline futures.
Weak consumer confidence data in United States, the key
export market for European gasoline refiners, saw prices drop.
Analysts pinned the weakness in U.S. consumer confidence on
a large jump in gasoline prices in the last quarter.
"The surge in gasoline prices threatens to derail the
consumer recovery before it even begins," Paul Dales at Capital
Economics said.
"The possibility of further rises in gasoline prices may
mean that confidence struggles to increase much further from
here."
The U.S Conference Board's consumer confidence index fell to
49.3 in June from a downwardly revised 54.8 in May.
[ID:nN30437089]
Limited support came from ongoing refinery outages in
Nigeria, which imports gasoline from Europe.
PRICES
* Premium unleaded 10ppm gasoline barges traded in a broad
range between $644.50 and $675 a tonne throughout the day, but
closed at the lower end of the scale after crude and RBOB
gasoline markets sold-off on the U.S. open.
* On Friday, prices had closed near $660 a tonne.
* Volume was relatively steady, about 17,000 tonnes changed
hands throughout Tuesday. Total and Gunvor were the main buyers
in the evening trading window, with Vitol, BP and Statoil the
main seller.
* The drop in the Eurograde gasoline prices outstripped a
sell-off in crude oil, pushing its crack to dated Brent BFO-
to $8.70 a barrel from $9.25 on Monday.
* Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading down $1.80 at
$69.19 a barrel by 1644 GMT. Earlier, prices had risen to an
8-month a high of $73.50 a barrel. [O/R]
* U.S. RBOB gasoline futures RBc1 were trading down 3
cents at $1.90 a gallon.
SWAPS
* Gasoline swaps were $644 a tonne for July, down $20 on
Monday.
* The spread between July and August narrowed to a
backwardation of $6.50 a tonne from $7.75 a tonne.
August/September was at $5.50 a tonne.
* Cracks narrowed to $6.45 a barrel for the third quarter
from $7.05 on Monday.
STOCKS
* U.S. gasoline stocks probably rose by 2 million barrels
last week, according to a Reuters poll of analysts ahead of the
weekly inventory data.
* The American Petroleum Institute releases its data later
on Tuesday, followed by the Energy Information Administration at
1430 GMT on Wednesday.
REFINERIES
* Total has restarted its first unit at its 153,000 barrel
per day Vlissingen refinery in the Netherlands this week
following planned maintenance. Total said all units at the
refinery would be operational by mid-July having been shut since
May 25. [REF/OUT] [REF/E]
NAPHTHA
* Naphtha traded down to $580 a tonne cif NWE, with brokers
saying prices had been pressured by the sell-off in crude.
* Naphtha swaps for July were seen at $575 a tonne, with
August currently trading around $571 a tonne. July traded at
$590 a tonne on Monday.
(Reporting by David Sheppard; editing by Ikuko Kao and Keiron
Hendersoon)
