Europe Products-Prices mixed, gasoline crack strengthens

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters) - European oil product prices were
mixed on Friday. Gasoline fell but its crack strengthened, along
with fuel oil's, as traders expected weak middle distillates'
crack to force refiners to cut runs.

ICE gas oil's crack was around $5.60 a barrel, after hitting
a five year low of $4.60 on Thursday.

GASOLINE AND NAPHTHA <EURO/DIFF/MOGAS>

* Benchmark 10 ppm premium unleaded gasoline PU-10PP-ARA
fell to trade at $568-$575 a tonne fob ARA from Thursday's close
at $572-$577.

* Volume was 10,000 tonnes.

* The fall in Eurograde gasoline prices was limited compared
with crude oil its crack to dated Brent BFO- rose to $8.80 a
barrel from $7.75 on Thursday.

* Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading 76 cents down at
$60.37 a barrel by 1122 GMT.

* U.S. RBOB futures RBc1 were 0.4 percent lower at $1.6570
a gallon.

* Despite the increases in gasoline inventories in Europe,
some traderS said gasoline supplies were likely to become tight
as much weaker middle distillates cracks would force refiners to
cut runs.

* "Eurograde will be bid up," one trader said. But this is
likely to result in shutting the arbitrage window to the United
States, the trader added.

* Gasoline swaps rose and the prmopt backwardation widened.

* The balance of July was $580.00 a tonne, with a $5.00
discount on August.

* Cracks also strengthend to $8.60 a barrel for the balance
of July and $7.35 for the third quarter, cpmared with $8.05 and
$6.85, respectively.

* The July arbitrage was 80 cents.

MIDDLE DISTILLATES <EURO/DIFF/GO>

* Physical barge activity was limited in early trading as
July ICE gas oil futures expired at 1100 GMT.

* Barges of gas oil with 0.1 percent sulphur were discussed
around a $1 discount and a $1 premium a tonne fob ARA to August
gas oil.

* Diesel was assessed around August plus $14 a tonne fob
ARA.

* July ICE gas oil expired at $485.50 a tonne, up by $1.75
from Thursday's close.

* The contango between July and Augsut was $6.50 a tonne at
the expiry and August/September at $9.00.

* August was trading 75 cents up at $491.50 by 1140 GMT.

* Shipments of jet fuel to Europe from sources East of Suez
totalled 325,000 tonnes so far for lifting in July and will
mostly be stored at sea, traders said on Friday. [ID:nSP487165]

* European traders said the volume of jet fuel stored at sea
has not increased as some cargoes were sold at ship-to-ship
delivery and filled by new delivery due to difficulty of storing
the fuel for long time.

FUEL OIL <EURO/DIFF/FO>

* High sulphur fuel oil barges (HSFO) were not discussed
actively. Brokers assessed the prices were little changed from
Thursday's close at $350-$354 a tonne fob ARA.

* The notional prices narrowed HSFO's crack to dated Brent
BFO- to minus $4.10 a barrel, the highest since mid May, by
1145 GMT.

(Reporting by Ikuko Kao; Editing by Keiron Henderson)