West Coast wholesale gasoline rises on refinery outages

Gasoline prices climbed on Wednesday in West Coast wholesale markets because of unit outages at Los Angeles-area refineries, refined products markets traders said.

December-delivery California gasoline, called CARBOB and blended to meet strict standards set by the state, rose 24 cents a gallon to finish on Wednesday at a 2-cent a gallon premium to January NYMEX RBOB futures, traders said.

January-delivery CARBOB gained 11 cents in the Los Angeles market to trade at 6 cents a gallon over February RBOB.

PBF Energy PBF is conducting planned maintenance at its 160,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Torrance, California refinery, traders said. The company told the South Coast Air Quality Management District it would be conducting planned flaring between Dec. 7 to Dec. 11.

Chevron Corp CVX said a mechanical issue in an operating unit caused flaring on Tuesday at its 269,000 bpd El Segundo, California refinery. Traders said several units reduced production because of the malfunction.

In the San Francisco market, December CARBOB rose 35 cents to finish at even with January RBOB.

In the Pacific Northwest, December gasoline rose 15 cents to finish at a 10-cent a gallon discount to January RBOB.