June 7, 2012:

Chicago gasoline and diesel differentials rallied on Thursday after ExxonMobil Corp, (XOM.N) which operates the 238,600 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in Joliet, Illinois, started buying products, traders said. Chicago CBOB gasoline jumped by 10.00 cents a gallon to 26.00/27.00 cents over the July RBOB gasoline futures contract on the New York Mercantile Exchange , while ultra-low sulfur diesel rose 6.00 cents a gallon to 20.00 cents over July heating oil futures.

Traders said Exxon experienced an operational glitch at the Joliet refinery. The company declined to comment on its operations at the plant. They added the Midwest products market did not react to the shutdown of Enbridge Inc.'s (ENB.TO) 609,000 bpd 6A crude line, which supplies Canadian crude oil to refiners in the Chicago area. Enbridge, which shut the line on Wednesday, said it expected no impact on deliveries but declined to provide a restart date.

In related news, Marathon Petroleum said it had started planned work at its 206,000 barrels-per-day (bpd) refinery in Robinson, Illinois on Thursday. On the Gulf Coast, M2 conventional gasoline differentials rose by 2.00 cents per gallon to 8.00 cents under July RBOB futures on the NYMEX as its latest five-day lifting cycles scheduled to move on the Colonial Pipeline. A2 CBOB formulated for blending with 10 percent ethanol gained 1.50 cents per gallon to 10.00 cents under early in the day, but retreated to finish down slightly from Wednesday's levels at 11.65 cents under, traders said.

Gulf jet fuel differentials slipped on pipeline scheduling, ending the day down by a penny per gallon at 3.50/4.50 cents over July NYMEX heating oil futures. In the New York Harbor, gasoline differentials rose slightly, with F2 RBOB gasoline for delivery on the 20th of the month up a quarter cent at 6.20 cents over July RBOB futures. CBOB gasoline gained a half cent a gallon to 1.50 cents over the July gasoline futures. RBOB gasoline for any-month delivery also rose a quarter cent to 2.75/3.00 cents over in earlier trading but fell back to 2.75 cents over, flat to late Wednesday levels.

By Reuters