California Gasoline Climbs After Valero Plant Reports Breakdown

California spot gasoline rose against futures after Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) reported a compressor breakdown at the Wilmington refinery near Los Angeles.

The 78,000-barrel-a-day refinery restarted the compressor after the failure yesterday, a filing with federal regulators shows. Valero said in a separate notice to the South Coast Air Quality Management District that the plant may flare gases because of a breakdown.

“There was no material impact to production” at the refinery, Bill Day, a spokesman at Valero’s headquarters in San Antonio, said by e-mail.

California-blend gasoline, or Carbob, in Los Angeles gained for a third day, rising 3.5 cents to a discount of 4 cents a gallon versus gasoline futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 3:52 p.m. East Coast time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Chevron Corp. (CVX)’s 279,000-barrel-a-day El Segundo refinery is shutting a fluid catalytic cracker around Jan. 14 for 54 days of work and will take down an alkylation unit for 28 days, a person with knowledge of the schedule said Dec. 7.

The plant is also planning a maintenance turnaround on the No. 2 crude unit for August, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Tesoro Corp. (TSO) and BP Plc (BP/) are scheduled to shut units at their refineries in Southern California for work next month, people familiar with operations at the plants said.

Hydrogen Plant

Air Products & Chemicals Inc. (APD) repaired a broken valve over the weekend at a plant in Wilmington that supplies hydrogen to area refineries. The plant was back to normal operations at about 11:45 p.m. local time Dec. 8, Art George, a spokesman at the company’s headquarters in Allentown, Pennsylvania, said by e-mail today.

Refinery customers received hydrogen during the repairs at reduced rates, George said.

Carbob in San Francisco gained 2.5 cents to 15 cents a gallon below futures, the highest level for the fuel in the Bay Area since Dec. 4.

California-grade, or CARB, diesel in Los Angeles and San Francisco were unchanged at discounts of 6.5 cents and 7 cents a gallon versus Nymex heating oil futures, respectively.

Conventional, 84-octane gasoline in Portland, Oregon gained 0.5 cent to 18 cents a gallon below gasoline futures, Low-sulfur diesel in Portland also rose by 0.5 cent to 9 cents a gallon under 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.net0