* Group Three extends gains as supply crunch unresolved
* Gulf gasoline slips, shrugs off partial Colonial Pipeline outage
* Harbor gasoline, diesel edge up
NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) – Group Three gasoline differentials extended
gains on Thursday, rising by almost half a dollar this week due to a supply
crunch, traders said.
The differentials rose 8.00 cents a gallon to 66.00/70.00 cent over June
RBOB futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange, 47.50 cents higher than
Friday’s close.
Supplies coming later than expected on the Explorer pipeline from the Gulf
Coast, refinery outages and low stocks have all contributed to the jump.
Earlier in the day, the bid/ask spread on differentials – up to 20 cents –
was so wide that trade ground almost to a standstill.
Chicago CBOB differentials rose 14.00 cents a gallon to 33.00/37.00 cents
over June RBOB futures after a 9.00 cent fall on Wednesday, when Cycle 3 began
trading. Chicago ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) rose a penny a gallon to
15.00/17.00 cents over June heating oil futures.
On the U.S. Gulf Coast, gasoline differentials slipped on Thursday,
shrugging off a partial shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline to fix a
small gasoline leak, traders said.
Colonial shut its main gasoline line, Line 1, for about an hour on Wednesday
to isolate the leak near Hebert, Texas, about 88 miles (142 km) east of Houston,
where the pipeline originates.
The pipeline east of Hebert was restarted and had reached normal levels on
Thursday, but the leg between Houston and Hebert remained shut as crews
excavated a block valve site to find the source of the leak.
A2 CBOB differentials slipped by 0.75 cent per gallon to 18.25 cents under
June RBOB futures, while conventional M2 fell by 0.25 cent per gallon to 9.75
cents under, traders said.
Gulf ULSD differentials were largely steady as their latest five-day lifting
cycles scheduled to move on the Colonial. 61-grade with renewable fuel or
biofuel content and 62-grade with no such content each held in a bid-offer
spread of 4.75/4.25 cents under, with 62-grade deals seen at 4.50 and 4.35 cents
under, traders said.
In the New York Harbor, M2 conventional gasoline differentials were bid at
8.50 cents under June RBOB futures, 0.25 cent higher on the previous day,
traders said. Trades in F2 RBOB gasoline differentials were done at 0.05 and
0.10 cent under.
ULSD traded at 0.25 cent over June heating oil futures, half a penny higher
on the previous day. Heating oil traded at 15.25 cents under, traders said.
For more refinery news, please go to
Latest day
Timing NYMEX Bid Offer Change
Contract
U.S. GULF COAST * Scheduling
A2 CBOB gasoline Cycle 28 RBOB -18.50 -18.00 -0.75
M2 conventional gasoline Cycle 28 RBOB -10.00 -9.50 -0.25
61-grade ULSD * Cycle 28 HO -4.75 -4.25 0.00
62-grade ULSD * Cycle 28 HO -4.75 -4.25 0.00
54-grade jet fuel Cycle 29 HO -16.50 -15.50 0.00
Heating oil Cycle 29 HO -17.75 -17.25 0.00
NEW YORK HARBOR
M2 conventional gasoline Prompt RBOB -8.50 -8.00 0.25
Any-Month RBOB -8.75 -8.25 0.00
F2 RBOB Prompt RBOB -0.30 0.20 0.00
Any-Month RBOB -0.35 0.05 0.00
ULSD Prompt HO 0.00 0.50 0.50
Any-Month HO -0.25 0.25 0.00
Heating oil Prompt HO -15.50 -15.00 -0.25
Any-Month HO -21.00 -18.00 0.00
Jet fuel Prompt HO -13.00 -12.00 0.00
Any-Month HO -9.25 -8.75 0.00
MIDWEST
Chicago CBOB gasoline Cycle 3 RBOB 33.00 37.00 14.00
Chicago ULSD Cycle 3 HO 15.00 17.00 1.00
Group Three gasoline RBOB 66.00 70.00 8.00
Group Three ULSD HO 6.50 7.00 0.00
(Reporting by Kristen Hays in Houston and Sabina Zawadzki in New York; Editing
by Peter Galloway)
