HOUSTON, June 16 (Reuters) - Heavy Louisiana Sweet fell
sharply and Mars sour skidded then rebounded as the U.S. cash
crude market continued adjusting Tuesday to outages at Valero Energy
Corp refineries in Louisiana and Texas.
HLS, a key feedstock at Valero's St. Charles refinery in Louisiana, weakened 55 cents to sell for a 25-cents-per-barrel discount to West Texas Intermediate. Valero has said it will take three weeks to reopen St. Charles after a fire last week.
Mars, affected by both the St. Charles outage and the coker cutbacks at Valero's Corpus Christi, Texas, plant, skidded to $3.30 under WTI before bouncing to minus $3.00, unchanged. Valero has said it is shutting the Corpus Christi coker due to weak fuel demand.
Light Louisiana Sweet gained 10 cents to sell for $1.50 a barrel over WTI, and there were August deals for LLS at plus $1.30, also 10 cents stronger.
An analyst said additional pressure on heavy sours could be coming from the narrowing, until recent days, of the differential spread between LLS and Mars, which bottomed out at $2.25 on May 22 but has rebounded as far as $4.50 in favor of LLS Tuesday.
'When the sweet-sour spread narrows sufficiently due to strength in sour, some swing refiners find better value in cheap sweet and switch from sour to sweet on some incremental barrels,' said Carl Holland of Connecticut-based Energy Trading Solutions.
In the Midcontinent, West Texas Sour cash crude ended 15 cents weaker at WTI minus $1.80. WTI at Midland strengthened 5 cents to sell for 40 cents under.
On futures markets, July WTI lost 15 cents to $70.47 and kept falling in after-settlement trade. August Brent was unchanged at $70.24. The WTI front-month spread was virtually unchanged at -69 cents. Starting a new month for Brent, the WTI-Brent spread was 22 cents weaker at +82 cents.
On the West Coast, Alaskan North Slope crude for August delivery sold twice for 25 cents over WTI, stronger by 55 cents than the last publicly disclosed August deal. Both August deals were for 300,000 barrels.
The last disclosed deal for July ANS was done at 35 cents a barrel under WTI on June 9.
Buyers lowered posted prices for California crude 15 to 30 cents a barrel.
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(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
((Email: b.nichols@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 210 8510; Reuters Messaging: bruce.nichols.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS USCRUDE (For help: Click 'Contact Us' in your desk top, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
HLS, a key feedstock at Valero's St. Charles refinery in Louisiana, weakened 55 cents to sell for a 25-cents-per-barrel discount to West Texas Intermediate. Valero has said it will take three weeks to reopen St. Charles after a fire last week.
Mars, affected by both the St. Charles outage and the coker cutbacks at Valero's Corpus Christi, Texas, plant, skidded to $3.30 under WTI before bouncing to minus $3.00, unchanged. Valero has said it is shutting the Corpus Christi coker due to weak fuel demand.
Light Louisiana Sweet gained 10 cents to sell for $1.50 a barrel over WTI, and there were August deals for LLS at plus $1.30, also 10 cents stronger.
An analyst said additional pressure on heavy sours could be coming from the narrowing, until recent days, of the differential spread between LLS and Mars, which bottomed out at $2.25 on May 22 but has rebounded as far as $4.50 in favor of LLS Tuesday.
'When the sweet-sour spread narrows sufficiently due to strength in sour, some swing refiners find better value in cheap sweet and switch from sour to sweet on some incremental barrels,' said Carl Holland of Connecticut-based Energy Trading Solutions.
In the Midcontinent, West Texas Sour cash crude ended 15 cents weaker at WTI minus $1.80. WTI at Midland strengthened 5 cents to sell for 40 cents under.
On futures markets, July WTI lost 15 cents to $70.47 and kept falling in after-settlement trade. August Brent was unchanged at $70.24. The WTI front-month spread was virtually unchanged at -69 cents. Starting a new month for Brent, the WTI-Brent spread was 22 cents weaker at +82 cents.
On the West Coast, Alaskan North Slope crude for August delivery sold twice for 25 cents over WTI, stronger by 55 cents than the last publicly disclosed August deal. Both August deals were for 300,000 barrels.
The last disclosed deal for July ANS was done at 35 cents a barrel under WTI on June 9.
Buyers lowered posted prices for California crude 15 to 30 cents a barrel.
==========================================================
DATA LINKS: Energy Speed Guide Crude Speed Guide NYMEX WTI futures ICE Brent futures US crude prices US crude differentials Freight rates
NEWS LINKS: NYMEX Market reports ICE market reports US Cash crude deals Foreign crude deals Dirty tanker news Dirty tanker fixtures Weekly US oil data US crude outlook US Refinery outages US Cash oil products US products outlook ...........................................................
(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
((Email: b.nichols@thomsonreuters.com; +1 713 210 8510; Reuters Messaging: bruce.nichols.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: MARKETS USCRUDE (For help: Click 'Contact Us' in your desk top, click here or call 1-800-738-8377 for Reuters Products and 1-888-463-3383 for Thomson products; For client training: training.americas@thomsonreuters.com ; +1 646-223-5546) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.