Europe Distillates-Diesel profit margins fall over 4%

LONDON, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Diesel refining profit margins fell around 4.5% on Wednesday on rising distillate stocks.

• Low-sulphur gasoil futures traded at $75.67 a barrel above Brent crude futures by 1635 GMT, $3.52 lower than the previous close.

• US crude and gasoline stocks fell in the week ended October 16, while distillate inventories rose, the US Energy Information Administration said, with the most recent data reflecting the impact of Hurricane Isaias. EIA/S

• France - Europe's second-largest diesel consumer - has secured an additional 295,000 tons of diesel from Gulf countries for both October and November. Meanwhile Russia will dispatch its first tanker with diesel for the United States on Thursday.

• Phillips 66 PSX.N has barred nearly 400 union workers from its 275,000 barrels-per-day Bayway refinery in Linden, New Jersey, after the collective bargaining agreement and an extension of the contract expired.

• Two top US Energy Department officials on Tuesday said they were working with refiners at home and abroad to boost diesel output.

• EU-27 and UK diesel and gasoil imports are on track to average about 829,000 barrels per day so far in October, Kpler data showed, compared with an average of 773,000 bpd for the whole of September.