Europe Distillates-Diesel profit margins slide

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Northwest European diesel refining margins dropped more than 4% on Wednesday as oil prices fell, with investors betting that US midterm election losses for President Donald Trump's Republican Party could open the door to a winding down of the US-Israeli war on Iran.

• Low-sulphur gasoil futures traded at a premium of $68.87 a barrel to Brent crude futures by 1752 GMT, nearly $3 lower than the previous close

• US distillate inventories USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.6 million barrels last week to 99.3 million barrels, versus expectations in a Reuters poll for a drop of 100,000 barrels, the Energy Information Administration said

• Distillate stocks are now at their lowest since 2003

• Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI rose by 199,000 barrels per day last week, the EIA said, while utilisation rates USOIRU=ECI rose by 1.7 percentage points to 94.5%

• The US Energy Department said on Wednesday that it would loan 300,000 barrels of fuel oil to four companies from the nation's emergency heating oil reserve in an effort to counter surging prices before winter