Midwest Spot Gasoline Gains After Conoco Refinery Power Outage
Midwest spot gasoline strengthened after ConocoPhillips reported a power failure at its Wood River refinery in Illinois.
“Power failure caused sulfur to convert to SO2 and be released from flare stack” on Aug. 28, the company said in a filing with the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. The 380,900-barrel-a-day refinery reported power was restored Aug. 29 and the plant was “still emitting more than 500 pounds of SO2 per day.”
The premium for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago rose 1.5 cents to 9.25 cents a gallon versus October-delivery futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:35 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the highest level in 14 months. Fuel for prompt delivery gained 0.88 cent to $2.0011 a gallon.
The premium for the same fuel in the Midwest, or Group 3, market widened 1.25 cents to 6.5 cents a gallon, the highest level since December 2008.
Valero Energy Corp. started a hydrocracker at its Benicia, California, refinery over the weekend, Bill Day, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail.
The premium for California blend, or Carbob, gasoline in San Francisco slipped 5.25 cents to 19.25 cents a gallon. Prompt delivery fell 5.97 cents to $2.1001 a gallon.
The same fuel in Los Angeles fell 4.75 cents to 17 cents a gallon.
Gasoline consumption in California, the most populous U.S. state, fell 0.1 percent in May from a year earlier, the state’s Board of Equalization reported.
To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net.
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