Gulf Gasoline Climbs as Valero McKee Refinery Repairs Compressor

Gulf Coast gasoline rose for a second day as Valero Energy Corp. (VLO)’s 170,000-barrel-a-day McKee refinery in Texas repaired a compressor at a hydrotreater.

The discount for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in the Gulf Coast narrowed 0.13 cent to 6 cents a gallon versus futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York at 1:56 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prompt delivery fell 0.98 cent to $2.4074 a gallon.

San Antonio-based Valero released 700 pounds of sulfur dioxide at the McKee refinery during repairs to a compressor at a hydrotreater, which removes sulfur, metal and other impurities from refined products.

“This is not expected to have a material impact on production,” Bill Day, a spokesman for Valero in San Antonio, said in an e-mailed statement.

The same fuel in New York Harbor was unchanged at 1.75 cents above gasoline futures. The fuel in the Midwest, or Group 3, slipped 0.13 cent to a discount of 3.38 cents versus futures.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago widened 0.87 cent to a discount of 12.5 cents to futures, the lowest level since July 22.

“Without a gasoline buyer in the market, it’s just going to keep working its way lower,” Steve Mosby, vice president of ADMO Energy LLC, a supply consultant in Kansas City, Missouri, said in an telephone interview.

ConocoPhillips (COP) finished planned work at the 213,162-barrel- a-day Ponca City refinery in Oklahoma, Rich Johnson, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail. A crude unit, fluid catalytic cracker and alkylation unit were scheduled to shut during a 2011 turnaround, a person familiar with the work said June 23, 2010.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lynn Doan in San Francisco at ldoan6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net