Gulf Coast Gains as Motiva Refinery Repairs Said to Take Months

Gulf Coast gasoline strengthened as Motiva Enterprises LLC was said to be shutting a new crude unit for as long as five months at the Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, for repairs.

The refinery is assessing damage to the 325,000-barrel-a- day unit, a person with knowledge of operations said. The startup was abandoned over the weekend after the crude unit developed leaks, cracks in pipes, and a fire in a heater, according to the person, who declined to be identified because he’s not authorized to speak for the company.

The discount for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in the Gulf Coast narrowed 2 cents to 10 cents a gallon versus futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 11:53 a.m., according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The Motiva crude unit, shut since June 3, is part of a $10 billion expansion that pushed the Texas refinery’s capacity to close to 600,000 barrels a day of crude, making it the largest in the U.S.

Valero Energy Corp. (VLO)’s Corpus Christi West refinery in Texas was flaring gases because of maintenance in a hydrocracker, according to a filing with state regulators.

The emissions at the plant occurred because of a small leak in an LPG line to the hydrocracker, Bill Day, a company spokesman, said in an e-mail statement. “There was no material impact to production.”

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in New York Harbor held at a discount of 1.25 cents a gallon.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Burkhardt in New York at pburkhardt@bloomberg.net.

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