Gasoline Rises for Sixth Day; ICE Gasoil Declines: Oil Products

European gasoline advanced for a sixth day as Cargill Inc. and BP Plc (BP/) bought on the barge market. Gasoil declined on the ICE Futures Europe exchange as Brent crude fell.

Gunvor Group Ltd. plans to build refineries, Chief Executive Officer Torbjorn Tornqvist said today in an interview in Davos, Switzerland, declining to elaborate.

Light Products

Gasoline in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp oil hub gained to as much as $1,017 a metric ton, the highest since Oct. 17, according to a Bloomberg survey of traders and brokers monitoring the Argus Bulletin Board. Barges changed hands from $1,006 to $1,015 a ton yesterday.

Vitol Group, Total SA (FP) and Trafigura Beheer BV sold the Eurobob grade, to which ethanol is added before being sold at the pump. Argos Groep BV also bought on the barge market, where lots of 1,000 and 2,000 tons are usually traded.

Gasoline’s crack, or premium to Brent crude, fell 46 cents to $8.78 a barrel as of 10:45 a.m. London time, according to PVM Oil Associates Ltd., a crude and refined products broker. It rose to the highest level since Oct. 11 yesterday.

Naphtha’s crack, or discount to Brent crude, widened to $6.43 barrel, according to PVM data. It was at $5.99 yesterday.

Middle Distillates

Gasoil for February delivery fell $2.25 cents, or 0.2 percent, to $968.50 a ton on the ICE exchange as of 11:48 a.m. London time. The contract traded at a premium of $7.75 to March futures, compared with $8 yesterday. The market has been in backwardation since Jan. 11, a structure that can signal rising near-term consumption or reduced supply.

Gasoil’s crack was little changed at $16.49 a barrel. Brent declined 0.3 percent to $112.45 a barrel.

Refining

Gunvor, which bought refineries in Antwerp, Belgium and Ingolstadt, Germany last year, can extract better value from crude processing that major oil companies, he said.

“We are actually planning to construct a couple of refineries around the world and we are looking for investment opportunities outside Russia as well,” Tornqvist said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Konstantin Rozhnov in London at krozhnov@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net