Oil Products End of Day Summary: Gasoline Cracks Surge

Gasoline cracks spreads rallied on the day to the highest closing level since August. Upside comes from refinery outages and signs of tightening supply as summer driving season approaches.

• US gasoline crack up 0.7$/bbl at 31$/bbl
• US ULSD crack down 1$/bbl at 32.2$/bbl
• Distillate cracks have likely bottomed out and are set to rebound from the latest plunge since early February, Goldman Sachs said in a note, cited by Bloomberg.
• Global refinery margins strengthened further in February, as ongoing refinery maintenance limited processing rates and weighed on product output, weighing on inventories according to the latest OPEC Monthly Oil Market Report.
• The fire at ExxonMobil’s 240kbpd Port-Jerome Gravenchon refinery was extinguished on Monday evening, a company spokesperson said, but the impact of the fire has not been determined yet.
• Shell is halfway through planned maintenance at its Pernis Rotterdam refinery according to a post on X.
• Valero’s 180kbpd Memphis, Tennessee, refinery plans to shut the 80kbpd West Crude Unit from mid-April for planned maintenance, sources told Reuters.
• Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery in Texas has shut its 85k b/d Vacuum Pipestill 2 crude unit, sources told Bloomberg.
• Dangote is set to produce 90kb/d of VLSFO by Q4 according to FGE, which is expected to place downward pressure on global cracks.
• All three US Gulf Coast gasoline grades pushed to nearly six-month highs March 11 as they shifted to summer specifications according to Platts.
• Varo Energy is limiting the supply of heating oil from the Vohburg refinery during maintenance this week, sources told Bloomberg.