New York Gasoline Rises After Futures Switch to June Contract

New York gasoline gained against futures after the New York Mercantile Exchange’s front-month contract rolled from May into June.

The discount to June futures for conventional gasoline to be blended with ethanol, or CBOB, in New York Harbor was 7 cents a gallon at 2:04 p.m. East Coast time compared with yesterday’s 8.25-cent discount to May futures, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Prompt delivery fell 5.72 cents to $3.0447 a gallon.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in the Gulf Coast region slipped 0.88 cent to 17.88 cents a gallon below futures, the lowest level for the fuel since March 12.

Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) started a crude unit at the 170,000- barrel-a-day McKee refinery in Texas that had been shut for work, Bill Day, a spokesman at the company’s headquarters in San Antonio, said in an e-mail today. The unit was started over the weekend and is at planned rates, he said.

Valero’s 250,000-barrel-a-day St. Charles refinery started the crude and coker units after more than three months of work, Day said yesterday. The 310,000-barrel-a-day Port Arthur plant also finished catalyst work on the hydrocracker that began March 27, he said.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago fell 2 cents to a 2.5-cent discount against futures.

BP Plc (BP/)’s Whiting refinery in Indiana had a “pump issue” yesterday that prevented it from shipping products over the West Shore pipeline near Chicago, said Marty White, director of right-of-way for the line’s operator Buckeye Partners LP. (BPL) The artery connecting the plant to the line was expected to be reopened today, he said in a telephone interview yesterday.

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