Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
DJIA	15,303.10	+8.60	0.06%
S&P 500	1,649.60	-0.91	-0.06%
Nasdaq	3,459.14	-0.27	-0.01%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

DJIA

15,303.10

+8.60

0.06%

S&P 500

1,649.60

-0.91

-0.06%

Nasdaq

3,459.14

-0.27

-0.01%

Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
STOXX 50	2,764.29	-12.49	-0.45%
FTSE 100	6,654.34	-42.45	-0.63%
DAX	8,305.32	-46.66	-0.56%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

STOXX 50

2,764.29

-12.49

-0.45%

FTSE 100

6,654.34

-42.45

-0.63%

DAX

8,305.32

-46.66

-0.56%

Ticker	Volume	Price	Price Delta
Nikkei	14,612.50	+128.47	0.89%
Hang Seng	22,618.70	-51.01	-0.23%
S&P/ASX 200	4,983.50	-78.95	-1.56%

Ticker

Volume

Price

Price Delta

Nikkei

14,612.50

+128.47

0.89%

Hang Seng

22,618.70

-51.01

-0.23%

S&P/ASX 200

4,983.50

-78.95

-1.56%

West Texas Sour Oil Strongest Since October as Holly Work Ends

By Eliot Caroom - 2013-02-26T20:04:17Z

West Texas Sour strengthened to the highest level versus domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate since Oct. 3 after HollyFrontier Corp. executives said maintenance at the Navajo, New Mexico, refinery is complete.

HollyFrontier finished work on a crude unit, fluid catalytic cracker and alkylation unit at its 115,000-barrel-a- day refinery with units in Artesia and Lovington, David Lamp, the company’s chief operating officer, said in a conference call with analysts. The refinery processes heavy, sour and light, sweet crude and runs Permian Basin crudes, according to the company’s website.

West Texas Sour, a low-density, high-sulfur crude oil delivered in Midland, Texas, strengthened by $4 to a discount of $2.75 a barrel against WTI at 2 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gap has narrowed by $16.25 since Jan. 11.

“Refinery maintenance still has a way to go, but the people who are coming up are more likely to use WTS than they are to use WTI right now,” said Carl Larry, president of Houston-based Oil Outlooks & Opinions LLC. “If I have an opportunity to buy WTS now, I buy it now. I see my WTI prices are going to be low for the next month.”

Crudes produced in the Gulf of Mexico weakened as spot price assessments switched over to April-delivery oil.

Light Louisiana Sweet’s premium to WTI narrowed 60 cents to $20.55 a barrel for April delivery, and Heavy Louisiana Sweet’s premium fell 80 cents to $21.35.

Mars Blend’s premium fell 60 cents a barrel to $16.25. Thunder Horse, a sour crude with lower sulfur content than Mars, weakened $1.25 to a premium of $19.

Western Canada Select, a blend of oil-sands bitumen, weakened by 50 cents against WTI to a $25-a-barrel discount, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Syncrude, a synthetic light, sweet oil upgraded from bitumen, was unchanged at a $2.50-a-barrel premium to WTI.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eliot Caroom in New York at ecaroom@bloomberg.net

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

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