Chicago Gasoline Drops as Citgo Lemont Oil Refinery Has Startup

Chicago gasoline weakened for a fifth day as Citgo Petroleum Corp.’s Lemont refinery in Illinois release emissions during a process startup.

The 170,500-barrel-a-day plant released an unknown amount of sulfur dioxide during the event, a filing with the National Response Center showed. Citgo shut a fluid catalytic cracker at the refinery last month and expected to finish the work within the first week of August, the company said in a July 30 statement.

The premium for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Chicago fell 0.5 cent to 9.5 cents a gallon versus futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:24 p.m., Bloomberg data showed. It’s the lowest level since July 6. Prompt delivery slipped 1.69 cents to $3.0744 a gallon.

Gasoline inventories in the Padd 2 region dropped 257,000 barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 49.6 million barrels, according to the Energy Department.

The same fuel in the Midwest, or Group 3, dropped 2.75 cents to a premium of 2.5 cents a gallon. It is the lowest level since July 10.

HollyFrontier Corp. (HFC) said its Tulsa refinery has cut crude processing rates by 30,000 to 40,000 barrels a day while repairs that may last eight weeks are under way on a diesel hydrotreater.

The refinery has also shut a 65,000-barrel-a-day crude unit in the East portion of the plant, David Lamp, the company’s chief operating officer, said during a conference call with investors today.

Regular 87-octane gasoline in the Gulf Coast dropped 1.5 cents to a discount versus futures of 10.25 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.