OREANDA-NEWS. BP continues to meet its fuel supply obligations despite shutting the largest crude unit at its largest North American refinery over the weekend, the oil major said today.

BP confirmed it cut rates at the 410,000 b/d refinery in Whiting, Indiana, on 8 August following a malfunction on a 210,000 b/d crude unit at the facility. The rest of the refinery continues to operate but at reduced capacity, spokesman Scott Dean said today.

BP would not say when the refinery would restart.

The outage sent Chicago gasoline rocketing higher this week and crushed prices for West Canadian Select, the heavy crude BP began modifying Whiting to process in 2012. Argus assessments yesterday climbed higher by 44.75?/USG for Chicago regular CBOB and by 48.75?/USG for Chicago regular RBOB. WCS has fallen by as much as $3.75/bl to a $21.50/bl discount to WTI today from a $17.75/bl discount to WTI assessed on 7 August.