Midwest refinery troubles help spur a rally in fuel prices
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A spate of refinery outages in the U.S. Midwest spurred in part by extremely cold weather has helped cash fuel prices rally in Chicago, boosting gasoline prices amid a margin-crushing glut, traders said.
Harsh winds brought record-low temperatures across much of the Midwest, causing at least a dozen deaths and forcing residents who pride themselves on their winter hardiness to huddle indoors.
BP PLC and Husky Energy’s jointly owned refinery in Toledo, Ohio, was running at modestly lower rates due to operational issues related to the extreme cold weather, according to a source familiar with the plant’s operations
Marathon Petroleum Corp shut down the 95,000
The company later shut the 89,000
Chicago CBOB gasoline cash differentials flipped to trade at a premium to the NYMEX gasoline futures contract this week for the first time since early November. It last traded at 2.00 cents per gallon above futures, traders said.
Chicago ultra-low sulfur diesel last traded at 3.50 cents per gallon below the heating oil futures benchmark, near the strongest level since November. ULSD prices have surged since
The overall crack spread was at $11.13 a barrel, the lowest seasonally since 2010. Gasoline margins were at $3.89 a barrel, the lowest for this time of year since at least
BP PLC’s Whiting, Indiana, refinery, the largest in the region, had to shut its 75,000-
The company fixed steam supply problems on Tuesday and restarted a hydrotreating unit, sources familiar with plant operations said.
Phillips 66 shut a 120,000-
Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw Stephanie Kelly and Erwin Seba; Editing by Dan Grebler
Comments