Refinery Glitches

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Wednesday January 23, 1:02 pm Eastern Time

NYMEX products robust on run cuts, glitch news

NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - NYMEX refined products marched higher midday on Wednesday, as growing refinery run cuts and talk of glitches fueled buying and lifted crude futures.

``It's all off the products at this point...run cuts are pushing gasoline higher,'' said a NYMEX floor trader.

At 1231 EST (1731 GMT), new prompt month March crude traded at $19.66 a barrel, up 68 cents, after extending the day's high to $19.69.

Analysts see the March contract's next target in the $19.80-49.85 area.

In London, IPE March Brent crude stayed robust, trading 41 cents higher at $19.16 a barrel.

Products are responding to refiner run cut news, including system-wide cuts by Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE:VLO - news) and Marathon Oil Corp. (NYSE:MRO - news), while sources have said BP Plc (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: BP.L) was cutting runs on the U.S. West Coast.

``This market has been pretty basically short, and there are shorts being covered ahead of the weekly API data, though there are no dramatic expectations,'' said Tim Evans, senior market analyst at-IFR Pegasus.

News of refinery glitches has added bullishness to the market. In addition, analysts said that the market was moving off last week's lows, signalling improving technical support.

Motiva's 21,000 bpd hydrotreater at its Delaware City refinery was shut after a fire on Tuesday, according to an industry source.

Sunoco Inc.'s (NYSE:SUN - news) 40,000 barrel per day (bpd) fluid catalytic cracker at its Point Breeze refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was shut after an unspecified glitch, traders around New York harbor said on Wednesday.

The gasoline-making unit at the 140,000 bpd refinery was expected to remain down for a week, though Sunoco officials would not comment on the talk.

NYMEX February gasoline was up 1.91 cents at 56.70 cents a gallon, off its session high of 56.75 cents. NYMEX February heating oil traded 1.59 cents higher at 53.00 cents a gallon.

Crude prices rose even after OPEC Secretary-General Ali Rodriguez said that the cartel is unlikely to make further output cuts. He did not rule out more curbs, but said economic recovery was a key to decisions on further cuts.

His remarks followed comments on Tuesday by Iran's oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, that current oil prices were below satisfactory levels and that a new output cut may be discussed at a scheduled OPEC meeting in March.

Traders are also weighing forecasts on the American Petroleum Institute's (API) weekly stocks data, due after the market close on Wednesday. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) numbers are due out Thursday morning.

API data forecasts on the API data call for a draw of 1.2 million barrels on distillates, a Reuters poll of analysts showed. Crude stocks were forecast to show a build of 1.35 million barrels, while gasoline stocks were expected to have risen 1.65 million barrels.

Tuesday's news that the U.S. Energy Department opened bidding aimed at oil companies' turning over a big chunk of crude oil to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, instead of making cash royalty payments, remained supportive.

Energy analyst Mike Rothman of Merrill Lynch said a total of 41.5 million barrels of crude will be diverted from the oil market as borrowers repay the SPR.

Yahoo!

Wednesday January 23, 11:05 am Eastern Time

Sunoco 40,000 bpd Philly cat cracker shut on glitch

NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Sunoco's (NYSE:SUN - news) 40,000 barrel per day (bpd) fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) at its Point Breeze refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was shut after an unspecified glitch, traders in the New York Harbor said on Wednesday.

The gasoline-making unit at the 140,000 bpd refinery was expected to remain down for a week. Sunoco officials would not comment on the talk.

Sunoco, headquartered in Philadelphia, is one of the largest independent petroleum refiner-marketers in the United States, operating five domestic refineries with about 750,000 barrels a day of crude oil processing capacity.

Yahoo!

Wednesday January 30, 4:46 pm Eastern Time

Valero says Wilington refinery down after glitch

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Valero Energy Corp. (NYSE:VLO - news) said Wednesday it was forced to shut its 141,000 barrel per day (bpd) Wilmington refinery near Los Angeles due to an instrumentation problem, and added that restart would be completed in about two days.

``We had an instrumentation problem which caused a plant-wide shutdown,'' Valero said in a statement. ``We are in the process of bringing the plant back up. The entire process will take about two days.''

San Antonio-based Valero is a leading U.S. refining firm, operating 12 refineries with a total crude distillation capacity of about two million barrels per day.

Yahoo!

-- Anonymous, February 01, 2002


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