LONDON, Sept 23 - Gasoline prices fell by around $25 to $615 a tonne on Wednesday after stockpiles of the motor fuel surged unexpectedly in Europe's key export market,according to U.S. government data. But an even larger sell-off in crude oil, which also saw a large jump in U.S. inventories, pushed profit-margins for gasoline refiners up by more than 30 percent, taking them from just above $6 to more than $8 a barrel. Gasoline prices had been steady around $640 a tonne in early trade, before the release of weekly U.S. fuel stocks data. Stocks of gasoline in the United States ballooned by 5.4 million barrels last week, according to the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). The market had been expecting a much smaller 400,000 barrel rise. [EIA/S] U.S. RBOB gasoline futures tanked by almost 5 percent in the wake of the DoE report, dashing the hopes of those European traders who had been hoping spot exports to the United States would soon turn profitable again.
