Los Angeles Gasoline Rises a Second Day on Refinery Maintenance

California-blend gasoline in Los Angeles strengthened to the highest level against futures in more than a week on speculation that work at three Southern California oil refineries is tightening supplies in the market.

Carbob in Los Angeles rose 4.5 cents to 13 cents a gallon above gasoline futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 4:06 p.m. New York time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It was the second straight gain of more than 4 cents.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM)’s 150,000-barrel-a-day Torrance refinery was scheduled to flare through the weekend as it recovers from two power failures on Jan. 9. Tesoro Corp. (TSO) is performing short- term maintenance on two gasoline-making units, two people familiar with the refinery’s operations said yesterday.

Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) began shutting units at the Wilmington refinery to work on a crude unit and coker, Bill Day, a company spokesman in San Antonio, said in an e-mail.

Carbob in San Francisco (MOGSD85P) dropped 4.5 cents to a discount of 6.75 cents against futures, its lowest level since Aug. 15.

California-blend diesel in San Francisco (DIEISCAD) slipped 0.13 cent to a premium of 2.75 cents a gallon against Nymex heating oil futures. The same fuel in Los Angeles (DIEILCAD) fell 0.5 cent to a premium of 4.25 cents.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Portland (MOGHD87P), Oregon, fell 2 cents to a premium of 1.5 cents against gasoline futures. That’s the narrowest margin for the fuel in Portland since Dec. 21.

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