Gasoline futures hit highest since October after Exxon refinery outage (NYSE:XOM) - Seeking Alpha

Gasoline futures hit highest since October after Exxon refinery outage (NYSE:XOM) | Seeking Alpha

Gasoline futures hit highest since October after Exxon refinery outage

Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM),

UGA,

XB1:COM By:

Carl Surran, SA News Editor
31 Comments kckate16

U.S. gasoline futures settled Monday at the highest in nearly nine months as an unplanned outage at Exxon Mobil's (NYSE: XOM) Baton Rouge, Louisiana, refinery is expected to keep a gasoline-making catalytic cracker down for several weeks, driving supply concerns just as demand appears to be firming.

The disruption during the high-demand summer driving season also boosted the 3-2-1 crack, a measure of the profitability of turning crude into fuel, to the highest since March, Bloomberg reported.

The Baton Rouge refinery has two fluid catalytic cracker units of equal size and with a combined capacity of 243.5K bbl/day, and one unit reportedly has been shut since Thursday when it tripped offline.

Front-month Nymex RBOB gasoline ( XB1:COM) for August delivery closed +3.3% to $2.8951/gal, the highest settlement value since October 28 last year and the fifth straight daily gain during which the contract has climbed 10%.

Gasoline prices at the pump have been stuck in a narrow range since April in a "remarkably quiet summer," but GasBuddy's Patrick de Haan said costs may be affected soon by the "tremendous heat," which could provide fuel for tropical weather systems in the Atlantic and Caribbean.

Gas Buddy reported the July 24 U.S. average for unleaded regular gasoline was $3.55/gal, up 2.1 cents from a week ago but nearly unchanged from a month ago and $0.78 less than at the same time a year ago.

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