Chicago's spot unleaded regular conventional gasoline prices
soared on Thursday amid speculation of production cuts at BP PLC's oil refinery
in Whiting, Ind.
The speculation came after the company reported emissions to the U.S. National
Response Center and an apparent outage of a key gasoline-making fluid catalytic
cracking unit at Exxon Mobil Corp.'s refinery in Joliet, Ill.
A person familiar with operations at BP's 405,000-barrel-a-day refinery told
Dow Jones Newswires that the plant was operating "smoothly," and
others in the region said the emissions did not affect production.
Exxon Mobil Thursday declined to discuss day-to-day operations but had reported
flaring at its 238,600 barrel-a-day refinery in Joliet, Ill., after a furnace
shutdown on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Husky Energy shut down operations at its refinery in Lima, Ohio,
for about 10 days of repairs at a furnace.
And on Monday, ConocoPhillips
said its 306,000 barrel-a-day Wood River refinery in Roxana, Ill., would run at
reduced rates "for several days" after a power outage on Saturday.
As such, Chicago's unleaded regular conventional gasoline for prompt,
first-cycle July delivery rose to between 3.5 cents and 5.0 cents a gallon
above the August Nymex gasoline benchmark price, up from discounts of between
0.5 cents and 1.5 cents to August Nymex on Wednesday, and up from a 9.0-cent
discount a week ago.
Conventional-gasoline for oxygenate blending, or CBOB, for first-cycle July
delivery in Chicago traded at a premium of 2.0 cents to August Nymex.
Group Three's discounts for regular unleaded gasoline delivered between July 1
and 10 narrowed to discounts of between 3.0 cents and 4.0 cents to August
Nymex, from discounts between 4.0 cents and 4.5 cents to August Nymex the day
before.
In the Gulf Coast, M2-grade regular conventional gasoline for prompt,
38th-cycle delivery last traded at a 12.0-cent discount to August Nymex, and
traded at Wednesday's high of 10.75 cents under August Nymex earlier on
Thursday.
Same-cycle M1-grade traded within Wednesday's ranges, at a 5.05-cent discount
to August Nymex.
Ultralow-sulfur diesel fuel, or ULSD, for delivery on the newly-prompt
37th-cycle, which prices against August Nymex, traded between premiums of 3.65
cents and 3.9 cents to August Nymex, and barrels for 38th-cycle delivery traded
at premiums of 3.8 cents and 3.95 cents to August Nymex.
Heating oil for prompt, 37th-cycle delivery traded at a 4.25-cent discount to
August Nymex and compares to deals done at 3.75 cents and 4.05 cents below
August Nymex on Wednesday.
And prompt, 37th-cycle jet fuel traded within recent ranges, at between
premiums of 4.8 cents and 5.5 cents to August Nymex.
New York's F2-grade reformulated-gasoline for oxygenate blending, or RBOB, for
prompt July delivery traded at a premium of 9.75 cents to August Nymex, while
barrels for ratable-July delivery, which means a delivery will be made in each
of the three 10-day periods of the month, traded 0.25 cents down on the day, at
a 3.75-cent premium to August Nymex.
328-grade CBOB for prompt shipment on the Buckeye Pipeline traded at a 6.0-cent
discount to August Nymex, and barrels delivered by July 10 traded 0.25 cents to
0.35 cents up on the day, at a 6.75-cent discount to August Nymex. And the July
20 timing traded at a discount of 8.5 cents to the August screen.
ULSD for prompt July delivery traded at a premium of 9.75 cents to August Nymex
heating oil futures, and heating oil for 32nd-cycle off-line Colonial Pipeline
delivery traded at a premium of 0.5 cents to August Nymex.
The August Nymex heating oil contract settled 1.16 cents above Wednesday's
settlement, at $2.9463 a gallon; the August Nymex RBOB contract settled 3.43
cents up on the day, at $2.9692.