USGC refiners hold onto their gasoline, as Midwest refiners seek
supplies
Houston (Platts)--28May2015/406 pm EDT/2006 GMT
On the backdrop of the severe storms in East Texas, US Gulf Coast
refiners are holding onto gasoline barrels at the same time distressed
Midwestern buyers are looking to bring supplies north, Gulf Coast
trading sources said Thursday.
"I heard only one seller is out there," one source said.
A second source said he had heard of Midwest buyers sourcing barrels for
both Chicago and Group 3, "with refiners hoarding" their stocks in the
USGC.
Several Midwest refiners have been experiencing production problems. The
market has known about issues at ExxonMobil's Joliet, Illinois, refinery
and Citgo's Lemont, Illinois, refinery for several days, and talk began
circulating Thursday of issues at PBF's Toledo, Ohio, refinery.
It looks likely that refiners with production problems would be
looking to source barrels in the Gulf Coast to cover their system
demands, a Midwest brokering source said.
Gulf Coast CBOB spiked higher in trading Thursday morning. CBOB started
the day at the NYMEX July RBOB futures contract minus 14.50 cents/gal
and hit a high of minus 11.50 cents/gal before dipping back amid thin
trading in the afternoon.
Chicago pipeline CBOB was heard traded at minus 4.50 and minus 4
cents/gal Thursday, up 1.25 cents from Wednesday.
"It's strong," a Chicago gasoline trader said.
The Gulf Coast market appeared to largely ignore published Energy
Information Administration data on gasoline stocks. Stocks remained
rangebound for the fourth consecutive week, the data showed, as regional
refineries continued to amp up output. Inventories stood at 76.75
million barrels in the week ended May 22, up 234,000 barrels from the
previous week.
Gulf Coast refineries appeared to overcome some production issues to
raise their capacity utilization to 95% of available capacity, up 1.9
percentage points from the previous week.
--Amanda Rayborn,
amanda.rayborn@platts.com
--Edited by Richard Rubin,
richard.rubin@platts.com
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