Gulf Coast Gasoline Falls as Valero Starts Memphis Unit

Gulf Coast gasoline fell against futures after Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) and Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) restarted refinery units and Motiva Enterprises LLC was said to be starting a new crude unit.

Valero’s Memphis, Tennessee, refinery restarted its West crude unit yesterday, said Bill Day, a spokesman based at company headquarters in San Antonio. The unit can process 80,000 barrels a day for the 195,000-barrel-a-day refinery, Day said this month.

Exxon Mobil finished maintenance at the Baytown refinery in Texas and restarted units, Patricia Errico, a company spokeswoman in Irving, Texas, said today in an e-mailed statement.

Motiva plans to start a new 330,000-barrel-a-day crude unit and coker at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery by the end of the month, according to two people with knowledge of operations.

The discount for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in the Gulf Coast widened 1.5 cents to 14.5 cents a gallon versus futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:58 p.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The prompt-delivery price fell 2.56 cents to $3.2011 a gallon.

The discount for conventional gasoline to be blended with ethanol, or CBOB, in New York Harbor widened 2.25 cents to 4 cents a gallon.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dan Murtaugh in Houston at dmurtaugh@bloomberg.net; Lynn Doan in San Francisco at ldoan6@bloomberg.net

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