San Francisco Gasoline Gains After Shell Martinez Flares Gases

California-blend gasoline in San Francisco gained for the first time in four days after Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA) flared gases at the Martinez oil refinery in Northern California because of an “operational issue.”

The 158,000-barrel-a-day Martinez plant reported a release of sulfur dioxide at about 12:20 p.m. local time, a notice to the California Emergency Management Agency showed. Kayla Macke, a Shell spokeswoman in Houston, declined to comment on whether the incident affected production at the plant.

Carbob in San Francisco jumped 5 cents to 1.75 cents a gallon above gasoline futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 5:25 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The fuel dropped 6.75 cents yesterday to trade at a discount to futures for the first time since April 12.

California-blend diesel in San Francisco was unchanged at 6.5 cents a gallon above Nymex heating oil futures. The same fuel in Los Angeles gained 0.75 cent to 4.75 cents a gallon above futures.

Los Angeles Carbob strengthened 3.5 cents to a discount of 3.5 cents a gallon against gasoline futures.

Tesoro Corp. (TSO) finished planned maintenance at the 97,000- barrel-a-day Los Angeles refinery, Tina Barbee, a spokeswoman at the company’s headquarters in San Antonio, said in an e-mail.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Portland, Oregon, slipped 1 cent to a discount of 5 cents a gallon versus gasoline futures. Low-sulfur diesel there also fell 1 cent to 10 cents a gallon above heating oil futures.

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