NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Midwest spot gasoline pricing discounts narrowed on Friday after news of the unplanned shutdown of a key gasoline-making unit at Bp's (BP, BP.LN) refinery in Whiting, Ind.
The larger of two fluid catalytic cracking units at the 405,000-barrel-a-day refinery was taken out of service on Thursday, a person familiar with operations the plant said Friday. There is no estimate yet on when it will resume operations.
As a result, Chicago's prompt unleaded regular conventional gasoline pricing discount narrowed by 6.0 cents on the day, to trade at 14.0 cents a gallon below the March Nymex benchmark price in early trading on Friday, and was last assessed between 15.0c and 16.0c below the benchmark.
Barrels for 2nd-cycle pipeline shipment ended 4.0c to 4.5c up on the day, at between 14.5c and 16.0c below March Nymex and the 3rd-cycle timing narrowed by the same amount to between 14.0c and 16.0c under.
Group Three's N-grade regular conventional gasoline market tracked Chicago's strength to post gains of 2.0c to 2.5c on the day. The prompt timing was last quoted between 12.0c and 12.5c under March Nymex, and the end-month timing ended between 10.5c and 11.5c below the benchmark. Prompt barrels last traded at a discount of 11.5c to March Nymex, up from trading at minus 13.75c earlier in the day.
The focus of Gulf Coast gasoline trading on Friday was conventional-gasoline for oxygenate blending, or CBOB, as selling outpaced buying interest throughout the day. Barrels for 9th-cycle Colonial Pipeline delivery traded down to a 5.25c discount to March Nymex, widening the discount regrade to M4-grade by as much as 1.2c on the day, to 3.0c.
In the Gulf Coast, M4-grade regular conventional gasoline for prompt 9th-cycle Colonial Pipeline shipment traded 0.25c to 0.5c down on the day, at discounts of 2.0c and 2.25c to March Nymex, and the 11th-cycle timing traded at 3.75c under.
F4-grade reformulated-gasoline for oxygenate blending, or RBOB, traded within recent ranges, at 2.1c below March Nymex.
New York's M4-grade gasoline also held within recent ranges, at between premiums of 1.5c to 2.25c to March Nymex on for Colonial Pipeline delivery off cycles 4, 5 and 9.
F5-grade RBOB for prompt delivery held between 1.25c and 1.5c under March Nymex, while barrels for delivery by Feb. 20 and at the end of the month traded a half cent lower, at 1.5c below the benchmark.
CBOB for barge loading by Feb. 11 ended between 1.75c and 2.0c under March Nymex, and barrels by Feb. 15 traded at minus 2.0c. Buckeye Pipeline loading into batch 044e and 066i traded at a 1.6c discount to the benchmark and the 051i batch traded at 1.85c and 2.0c under.
The March Nymex RBOB contract settled 4.55c above Thursday's settlement, at $2.9144 a gallon.
-By Rose Marton-Vitale, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-264-4185; rose.marton@dowjones.com