Gulf Coast spot gasoline discounts narrowed for a third consecutive
trading day on Wednesday on news of a key gasoline-making unit shutdown
at BP's Texas City refinery and thin market participation.
Gains were made despite a hefty 2.2-million barrel increase in
the region's gasoline stockpiles last week, to 80.6 million barrels,
the latest government data released earlier on Wednesday said, due to a
lack of selling.
M4-grade regular conventional gasoline for shipment on the
now-prompt and final 2012 cycle, the 72nd-cycle, traded up to 18 cents a
gallon below January Nymex RBOB, from minus 23 cents on Tuesday.
V4-grade premium conventional gasoline traded within recent ranges, at
parity to January Nymex.
A4-grade conventional-blendstock for oxygenate blendstock, or
CBOB, traded as much as 10 cents up on the day, to a discount of 20
cents to January Nymex.
In the Midwest, Chicago's spot gasoline market remains
over-supplied with an additional 900,000 barrels added to inventories in
the region last week.
CBOB for prompt 3rd-cycle December delivery traded at
Tuesday's 45 cents discount to January Nymex RBOB, with discounts
narrowing to between 41 cents and 44 cents below the benchmark
throughout the day. Barrels for 1st-cycle January delivery were last
quoted at 36 cents to 40 cents below February Nymex, which compares to
discounts left at 42 cents and 35 cents under the day before.
Chicago's prompt 3rd-cycle December ULSD discounts widened to 8 cents and 9 cents to January Nymex heating oil futures, from 6 cents and 7.5 cents under on Tuesday.
Group Three's spot market trading was extremely quite on
Wednesday with only prompt X-grade ULSD reported done at 1.75 cents
below January Nymex, up from discounts left at 2 cents to 4 cents on
Tuesday.
New York's F5-grade reformulated-blendstock for oxygenate
blending, or RBOB, market was steady on Wednesday. Barrels for Dec. 23
loading traded at 3.75 cents above January Nymex, with subsequent
selling last seen at plus 4 cents. The Dec. 26th timing traded at 3.25
cents over the benchmark, at Dec. 27 loading traded at plus 2.75 cents.
M4-grade regular conventional gasoline off Colonial Pipeline's
68th-cycle held at 3.75 cents and 4.25 cents over January Nymex, and
CBOB for Dec. 25 loading was steady at a premium of 1.25 cents to the
benchmark.
New York's prompt ULSD held at 5.5 cents above January Nymex, and heating oil was steady at parity to the benchmark.
Group Three's N-grade regular conventional gasoline discounts
narrowed to 21.5 cents and 22 cents to January Nymex, from 22 cents and
23 cents the day before. No trades were confirmed.
The January Nymex RBOB contract settled 5.22 cents up on the
day, at $2.7431 a gallon by tracking gains posted in the Nymex heating oil
complex. Those gains were triggered by a larger-than-expected draw down
in distillate inventories. February Nymex RBOB settled 4.95 cents
higher, at $2.7338.
January Nymex heating oil
futures settled at $3.0356, or 3.91 cents above Tuesday's settlement,
and the February contract settled 3.74 cents up, at $3.0313.