* Group Three gasoline up after Chicago rally on refinery issue
* Harbor jet fuel gains while gasoline falls on sparse buying
* Gulf gasoline shows slight gain
HOUSTON, April 26 (Reuters) – Group Three gasoline differentials climbed
2.00 cents per gallon on Thursday, catching up to Wednesday’s late-day Chicago
gasoline rally, traders said.
Group Three gasoline reached a bid-offer spread of 18.00/17.00 cents under
the May RBOB futures contract on Thursday while Chicago differentials held at
12.00/11.00 cents under June futures after gaining 4.00 cents per gallon late on
Wednesday.
Traders said a unit shutdown on Wednesday because of a leak at Husky
Energy’s 155,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) Lima, Ohio, refinery raised spot
rack prices.
Husky said on Thursday that the refinery was processing about 120,000 bpd at
the plant after the fuel gas system leak prompted a unit shutdown. A Husky
executive told analysts during a conference call that repairs should take two to
seven days.
Traders in the Group Three market also have sold off all higher Reid Vapor
Pressure gasoline, so differentials will continue to rise due on seasonal
increase in demand, a Midwest trader said.
In the New York Harbor, jet fuel differentials shot a penny per gallon
higher on Thursday with deals done at 10.25 and 10.50 cents over the June
heating oil futures contract on the NYMEX, traders said. By midday jet fuel was
pegged at 10.50/11.00 cents over.
However, the prior day was priced against May heating oil futures and the
May/June heating oil spread was about 0.60 cent in favor of May, shrinking the
actual jump to a 0.40 cent gain in real terms, traders said.
Trade was sparse in the Harbor gasoline markets, with anxious sellers seen
pushing differentials for M2 conventional gasoline and CBOB lower.
“It a buyer’s market in gasoline today,” said a Harbor trader who said he
was done for the month.
Prompt M2 conventional gasoline fell more than a penny per gallon to either
side of 9.00 cents under the May RBOB futures contract on NYMEX.
Prompt CBOB dropped 2.00 cents to 11.25/10.75 cents under. Prompt F2 RBOB
was unchanged at 0.50 cent under to flat to the screen.
With the arbitrage between Europe and the U.S. East Coast still open,
traders expect to see more cargoes of gasoline arriving in the region, which is
expected to push forward prices lower.
On the Gulf Coast, conventional M2 gasoline differentials slipped a quarter
cent per gallon on Thursday to 14.75 cents under June RBOB futures on the NYMEX,
traders said.
Gulf Coast ULSD, the last of the region’s refined products markets to switch
to trade against June futures, was pegged a quarter cent per gallon lower at
5.00 cents under June heating oil futures on the NYMEX as traders focused on a
new five-day lifting cycle.
For more refinery news, please go to
Latest day
Timing NYMEX Bid Offer Change
Contract
U.S. GULF COAST * Scheduling
M2 conventional gasoline Cycle 25 JUN RBOB -15.00 -14.50 -0.25
61-grade ULSD Cycle 25 MAY HO 4.75 5.25 -0.25
54-grade jet fuel Cycle 25 MAY HO 5.50 6.50 0.00
Heating oil Cycle 25 JUN HO -2.00 -1.50 0.00
NEW YORK HARBOR
M2 conventional gasoline Prompt MAY RBOB -9.25 -8.75 -1.12
Any-Month JUNE -8.50 -8.00 -0.12
RBOB
F2 RBOB Prompt MAY RBOB -0.50 0.00 0.00
Any-Month JUNE 1.25 1.75 -0.90
RBOB
ULSD Prompt MAY HO 8.50 9.00 0.00
Any-Month MAY HO 8.50 9.00 0.00
Heating oil Prompt MAY HO -0.50 0.00 +0.25
Any-Month MAY HO -0.50 0.00 +0.25
Jet fuel Prompt JUNE HO 10.50 11.00 +1.00
Any-Month JUNE HO 10.50 11.00 +1.00
MIDWEST
Chicago gasoline Cycle 3 JUN RBOB -12.00 -11.00 0.00
Chicago ULSD Cycle 3 JUN HO -5.00 -2.00 0.50
Group Three gasoline May RBOB -18.00 -17.00 2.00
Group Three ULSD MAY HO 4.50 5.00 0.50
