- Retail regular gasoline prices rose by 18c in the last four weeks to $3.376/Gal. About 57% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
- Scroll down for a chart of the RBOB-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
- Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 4.5 MMBbl for the week ending March 3 and are 2% below the five-year average for this time of year
- Gas prices surge to their highest since late-September
- Prompt-month gasoline prices rose to $2.59, the highest in nearly five months amid refinery closures and resurgent demand ahead of peak summer travel season
- The NYMEX gasoline crack is at its highest level since August amid interruptions to fuel production - including maintenance, unplanned outages, and drone strikes on Russian refineries, alongside elevated shipping costs from Houthi attacks and Panama Canal drought
- Despite over 1 MMBbl/d of new refining capacity expected to come online this year, delays are common, with Valero Energy expecting tight S&D balance due to lengthy startup periods for new global capacity
- Furthermore, US Tier 3 environmental regulations demand lower sulfur in gasoline, requiring severe hydrotreating of gasoline resulting in lower octane, pushing premium gasoline's premium over regular to $4.18, the highest since November
- TotalEnergies Port Arthur shuts FCC and other units after pipe leak (Bloomberg)
- TotalEnergies SE's refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, halted operations of its FCC, a crude unit, and a coker following a pipe leak
- The refinery, which has a capacity of 238 MBbl/d, is awaiting a clamp for the leak repair, with no specified timeline for the resolution
- The shutdown included the 80 MBbl/d ACU-2 crude unit, which supplies feedstock to the 80 MBbl/d gasoline-producing FCC, and the 60 MBbl/d coker, which cannot operate without ACU-2
- This incident adds to recent challenges at the refinery, which has struggled to maintain normal operations since a mid-January freeze caused a month-long shutdown
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- Retail diesel prices remain unchanged at $4.004/Gal in the last four weeks. About 45% of the change was due to the price of crude oil, while the remainder was the refinery margin
- Scroll down for a chart of the NY Harbor ULSD-WTI crack spread, a measure of refinery margin. It shows elevated cracks this year
- Distillate fuel inventories fell by 4.1 MMBbl for the week ending March 3 and are about 10% below the five-year average for this time of year
- Russia faces Ukrainian drone attacks on oil infrastructure, including refineries (Bloomberg)
- A wave of attacks by Ukrainian drones on Tuesday targeting Russian oil refineries, causing a unit shutdown at Lukoil's Norsi facility in Nizhny Novgorod (340 MBbl/d)
- The Surgutneftegas PJSC’s Kirishi refinery near St. Petersburg, (250 MBbl/d) was also targeted but suffered no damage from the drone strike
- Russian authorities banned gasoline exports from March 1 to September and coordinated refinery maintenance to support domestic supply amid attacks, affecting fuel-processing recovery as seasonal demand increases
- March diesel exports are also expected to decrease by 11% to 644 MBbl/d from February's 723 MBbl/d; drone strikes since January have damaged facilities constituting 18% of Russia's crude processing
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