Cracks dip, shrugging off lower crude prices

Benchmark northwest European gasoline barge refining margins inched down on Tuesday, shrugging off slumping crude prices which would normally lift margins, as outright prices for barges fell even more steeply.

* Benchmark Brent crude futures BRN1! fell below $80 a barrel, their lowest since January.

* At least 20 oil tankers queuing off Turkey to cross from Russia's Black Sea ports to the Mediterranean face more delays as operators race to adhere to new Turkish insurance rules added ahead of a G7 price cap on Russian oil, industry sources said.

* Russia's ESPO oil blend from the Far Eastern port of Kozmino was selling for around $79 a barrel in Asian markets on Monday - almost a third higher than a price cap imposed on Russian oil by the G7 and European Union, according to Refinitiv data and estimates from industry sources.

* Gasoline exports on the transatlantic route recovered somewhat last week, with overall November flows rebounding from the record lows registered in October, Refinitiv analysts said.

* Chartering activity is expected to remain mostly subdued in the first weeks of December, but might pick up later in the month.

* Flows to West Africa dried up last week, according to Refinitiv analysts. December export volumes across the United States and West Africa arbitrage routes are tracking at 222,000 tons so far, they said.

* Unions and BP have reached an agreement for workers at BP's large Rotterdam refinery, which had been largely idled this month amid a dispute over wages.

* Gasoline stocks held in independent storage in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp (ARA) refining and storage area rose to their highest in three months in the week to Thursday, data from Dutch consultancy Insights Global showed.

* Gasoline stocks rose 9% to 1.36 million tonnes on higher imports into the hub, particularly from other locations in northwest Europe, Insights Global's Lars van Wageningen said.