Midwest Gasoline Drops for 10th Day as Inventories Increase

Midwest gasoline declined for a 10th day as inventories of the fuel and refinery activity increased.

Gasoline in the region fell to the lowest level since May 4 after stocks rose 980,000 barrels to 48.7 million barrels last week, according to the U.S. Energy Department. Crude oil inputs to refineries gained 57,000 barrels a day to 3.48 million.

The discount for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in the Midwest, or Group 3, widened 2.75 cents to 13.75 cents a gallon versus futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York at 12:45 p.m. The fuel was at a premium of 26.5 cents June 14. Prompt delivery gained 5.08 cents to $2.555 a gallon.

Tesoro Corp.’s 60,000-barrel-a-day Mandan refinery in North Dakota is running at planned rates, Tina Barbee, a spokeswoman for the company, said in an e-mail. “We remain on schedule with previously announced completion targets for our expansion project,” she said.

Tesoro was scheduled to finish an expansion to increase the plant’s crude-processing capacity 10,000 barrels a day by “the latter part of this month,” Greg Goff, the company’s chief executive officer, said in a statement June 7.

Conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago narrowed its discount 1.5 cents to 5.5 cents a gallon versus futures.

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.