U.S. Gulf Coast Gasoline Strengthens on Process Upsets

Gasoline gained on the U.S. Gulf Coast after a process upset at Phillips 66 (PSX)’s Borger refinery and as a unit of Alon USA Energy Inc. (ALJ)’s Big Spring plant is shut for repair.

Phillips 66 routed emissions to control a device after a process upset at its 146,000-barrel-a-day Borger, Texas, refinery, the company reported Dec. 31. Alon shut a fluid catalytic cracker at its Big Spring refinery to repair a leak at the unit, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Reformulated gasoline to be blended with ethanol in the Gulf gained 3.37 cents to 7.13 cents a gallon below futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:06 p.m. Conventional gasoline added 2.5 cents to 13 cents below futures.

Ultra-low-sulfur diesel in the region gained 0.62 cent to 3.38 cents below heating oil futures.

The two refineries can process a combined 216,000 barrels a day, or about 2.5 percent of total U.S. Gulf Coast capacity. Inventories of motor fuel in the region were 81.3 million barrels, the Energy Department reported last week.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christine Harvey in New York at charvey32@bloomberg.net

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