Europe Gasoline-Rebounds by 3 pct to $640 a tonne

LONDON, June 23 (Reuters) - European gasoline prices moved
up by nearly 3 percent to around $640 a tonne on Tuesday on the
back of fresh buying interest, partially reversing the sharp
drop in the previous day.

Stronger crude and U.S. RBOB gasoline futures encouraged
traders to try and take advantage of Monday's near $60 sell-off
in the barge market, brokers said.

Strength in gasoline pulled the cracking margin back up to
above $10 a barrel.

PRICES

* Premium unleaded 10ppm gasoline barges traded in a range
of between $638 and $641 a tonne fob ARA, up from Monday's low
of $624. Prices are about $100 below an 8-month high hit above
$740 a tonne last week.

* The market was subdued compared with volumes in recent
days with about 12,000 tonnes changing hands.

* Gunvor and Total were the main buyers in the afternoon
trading window. Statoil and Chevron were the main sellers.

* Brent crude futures LCOc1 were up $1.36 at $68.34 a
barrel. [O/R]

* The crack to dated Brent BFO- rose to $10.09 a barrel at
1634 GMT from $8.47 on Monday.

* Gasoline's crack to dated Brent hit an 8-month high just
below $20 a barrel last week, but the steep fall in prices has
almost halved the crack in the last 7 days.

* U.S. RBOB gasoline futures RBc1 traded up almost 2
percent to $1.89 a gallon, but are still more than 10 percent
below the year-high hit last Tuesday.

SWAPS

* Gasoline swaps rose to $635.50 a tonne for the balance of
June from $624 on Monday. The spread between June and July
doubled to $2.00 a tonne, with the backwardation to August also
widening to $8 a tonne from $6.75 on Monday.

* Cracks were $6.85 a barrel for the third quarter and $1.55
for the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter crack stood above $2
a barrel on Friday.

NAPHTHA

* Naphtha prices strenghtened by nearly $20 a tonne as two
majors vied to buy one cargo. BP bid $562 a tonne for delivery
between 3 and 7 of July while Shell bid the same amount for
delivery between 14 and 18 of July. No offers were seen in the
trading window.

* Brokers said buying interest was picking up in northwest
Europe, but traders were still struggling to ship excess naphtha
stored in Europe to Asia due to high shipping costs.

* The amount of gas oil being stored in floating storage
around the world has pushed the price of clean tankers up.

* The spread between naphtha and gasoline narrowed to around
$80 a tonne.

* Brokers said they did not see the spread narrowing beyond
$75 a tonne during the summer driving season.

* Naphtha crack swaps were minus $6.10 a barrel for the
third quarter and minus $7.50 for the fourth quarter.

* Swaps for July were at $542 a tonne, with the market in a
slight backwardation to August at $541.50 a tonne.
(Reporting by Emma Farge and David Sheppard; editing by James
Jukwey)