Argus Eurobob oxy gasoline barge liquidity in November

Trading liquidity on Argus Eurobob oxy gasoline barges reached 244,000t in November, outweighing non-oxy volumes of 136,500t.

Oxy barge volumes are up from the 18-month low of 134,500t in October and are the highest since August, but are still down from 375,000t a year earlier.

For the first 11 months of the year, 3.54mn t of oxy gasoline changed hands, up from 3.06mn t in the same period of 2018.

Trading firm Gunvor was the largest buyer for a second month, securing 121,000t in November, up from 54,000t in October. Shell bought 75,000t, up from 6,000t the previous month. And Switzerland-based refiner Varo purchased 21,000t, down from 26,500t in October. The remainder was secured by German fuel suppier BMV Mineral, BP, refiner Petroineos, and trading firms Hartree, Trafigura and Vitol.

BP was the largest seller with 109,000t in November, from 28,000t in October. Total sold 93,000t, from 21,300t. ExxonMobil sold 26,000t, from 12,000t in November. Germany trading firm Mabanaft, Petroineos, Shell, Varo and Vitol sold the remainder.

Trading liquidity on Argus Eurobob non-oxy gasoline barges fell to 136,500t in November from a record 159,000t in October. This is still up sharply from 48,000t in November 2018. And 600,500t has changed hands since the start of the year, up from just under 350,000t in the first 11 months of 2018.

Higher Eurobob non-oxy volumes can be attributed to the Netherlands' roll out of E10 gasoline, which uses non-oxy Eurobob unfinished gasoline as an ethanol-ready blendstock.

Varo was the largest buyer, securing 87,000t of non-oxy gasoline in November, from 140,000t in October. BP and Hartree bought 16,000t and 11,500t, respectively, from 6,000t and nothing the previous month. The remainder was secured by Dutch firms Finco and Van Raak, along with Gunvor, Litasco, Shell, Total and Mabanaft.

Gunvor was the largest seller, with 47,000t in November, from 7,000t in October. Shell sold 34,000t, from 51,000t. Norway's state-controlled Equinor sold its first non-oxy barges, totalling 27,500t in November. The remainder were sold by ExxonMobil and Total.

By George King Cassell

Eurobob non-oxy traded volumes t

Eurobob oxy traded volumes t