Incompetence in repairing Refineries being used as latest excuse:
Too bad they are rewarded for the incomptence, even members here involved with the incompetence are proud of being a dead beat worker because it lines their pockets.
2-19-2013
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...on-refinery-repairs-oil-rally.html?cmpid=yhoo
Gasoline Pump Prices Soaring on Refinery Repairs
U.S. consumers facing the highest gasoline pump prices ever for February may see further increases as global crude oil futures climb and breakdowns and seasonal maintenance at refineries reduce fuel supplies.
Gasoline futures have surged 11 percent this year, making the fuel the top performing commodity in the Standard & Poors GSCI
index. Prices at the pump are up 14 percent this year and have risen 33 straight days, according to AAA data.
Unit breakdowns and seasonal repairs reduced refinery
processing by 8.3 percent since mid-December, cutting fuel production, Energy Information Administration data show. Regular gasoline has jumped 45.6 cents this year, the fastest increase in AAA data back to 2005.
Hedge funds
increased net-long positions in gasoline futures to 90,120 contracts of futures and options in the week ended Feb. 12, the most since April, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission reported Feb. 15.
An average of 1.5 million barrels a day of refining capacity will be offline for planned work from January through May, according to
Amrita Sen, chief oil market strategist at Energy Aspects Ltd., a research consulting company in London.
Refinery Incompetence
On the East Coast, which includes New York Harbor, delivery point for the Nymex contract,
Hess Corp. will close its Port Reading, New Jersey, plant later this month. It represents 7.7 percent of East Coast gasoline-making capacity, estimated
Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston.
On the Gulf Coast, Motiva Enterprises LLC is shutting units for work at its Port Arthur, Texas, refinery, the largest in the U.S. The plants new 325,000-barrel-a-day crude unit, plagued with fires and leaks since its May debut, is running at about 80 percent of capacity.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions shut the Girard Point section of its plant, the largest near the New York trading hub, in late January for 60 days of planned work.
BP Plcs Whiting, Indiana,
refinery, the biggest serving the Chicago market, wont bring its 225,000-barrel-a-day crude unit back online until the middle of this year after shutting it in November to convert the unit to process Canadian crude, Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley said in the companys fourth- quarter
earnings call on Feb. 5.
Refineries on the U.S. West Coast, including
Valero Energy Corp.s Wilmington and
Tesoro Corp.s Golden Eagle plants, have had to cut fuel production to repair equipment in the past two weeks.
The plants are down right now, said
Andrew Lebow, a senior vice president at Jefferies Bache LLC in New York. When they come back, particularly with these healthy margins, theyre going to want to produce full out so the rally is going to be blunted. Its a matter of timing.
If refiners are tempted to postpone repairs to capture margins and keep rates elevated for longer period, it could also lead to breakdowns, Schork said.
The incentive is there for maintenance being postponed because margins are nice and fat, Schork said.
It gets into the question of the operational integrity of a system that is pushed to the limit.