Asian gasoline moves to USWC

OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2016. Rare Asian gasoline cargoes are moving to the US west coast, as a string of unplanned refinery outages and stronger export demand pushed Los Angeles gasoline prices to the highest level in more than a month.

The Overseas Kythnos was seen chartered to load 35,000t of gasoline from Singapore with options to the US west coast, loading 8 June. The UACC Mansouria was booked on a similar route, likely loading gasoline or blending components as well.

Gasoline components rarely move from Singapore to the US west coast because of ample regional supplies and California's stringent specifications for on-road fuels. But gasoline from Singapore can be used in the Pacific Northwest or re-exported to Canada. The cargo could also contain blending components such as alkylate, which can be used to blend California grades.

Gasoline supplies in the Pacific Northwest have been tightened by an unplanned shutdown at BP's 222,700 b/d refinery in Cherry Point, Washington. A fire broke out at the plant on 31 May and took out a hydrogen plant which supplies hydrocrackers, hydrotreaters and other units.

Several unplanned refinery outages across California also crimped supplies in the region. Chevron's 275,000 b/d El Segundo refinery and Shell's 165,000 b/d Martinez refinery are undergoing unplanned maintenance. ExxonMobil's 155,000 b/d Torrance, California, refinery has still not reached full run rates after a fire last year, while a breakdown extended flaring there today.

In addition, wildfires in Alberta, Canada, disrupted gasoline supplies to west coast Canada, prompting increased demand for cargoes from California and the Pacific Northwest to Vancouver, BC.

West coast benchmark Los Angeles CARBOB price rose to \\$1.98/USG yesterday, the highest level since the beginning of May. This price is 43.4?/USG, or 28pc, higher than the Gulf coast gasoline market.

A total of 448,000bl, or about one and a half cargoes, of gasoline components moved from Singapore to the US west coast between October 2015 and March 2016, data from the Energy Information Administration showed.