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LONDON, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Northwest European gasoline refinery profit margins fell by $2.21 to $8.31 a barrel on Friday on high stocks.

• About 16,000 metric tons of Eurobob E5 gasoline traded on barges in the Argus window, as ExxonMobil, Equinor, TotalEnergies and Glencore sold to BP, Shell and MB Energy.

• Another 10,000 tons of Eurobob E10 cargoes traded with Phillips 66 selling to both Shell and Varo.

• Gasoline inventories in the U.S. rose by about 5.98 million barrels last week to 256.99 million barrels, the highest since February 2021, data from the Energy Information Administration showed.

• While the market was in contango due to seasonally weak demand, it was also bracing for what could be a tight balance once the next round of refinery maintenance takes supply out of the market amid demand ramping up seasonally in the second quarter, analysts at Sparta Commodities said.

• Meanwhile, EU-27 and UK gasoline and blending component exports to other regions have averaged 858,000 barrels per day so far in January, against 824,000 bpd over the whole of December.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in London)

((seher.dareen@thomsonreuters.com ))