Houston — Gasoline imports into Washington state over the first two weeks of August have lagged behind recent historic norms, US Customs Data compiled by S&P Global Platts Analytics showed Wednesday.
Market sources attributed this to brimming gasoline stocks in the state.
The customs data shows that in the first two weeks of August, Washington imported just one gasoline cargo: On August 6, the Island Trader brought 10,214 barrels into Seattle from Parkland Fuel's refinery in Burnaby, British Columbia.
In 2016 and 2017, the refinery accounted for the vast majority of Washington gasoline imports in August. In August 2017, 253,027 barrels, including regular and premium grades, were sent from this refinery, up from 190,968 barrels in August 2016.
Parkland bought the refinery from Chevron Canada in October 2017.
Parkland did not immediately respond to a call from Platts seeking comment on the operating status of its Burnaby refinery, but refinery data compiled by Platts Analytics shows that scheduled turnaround there ended in early April.
A West Coast market source said the turnaround finished in the spring and that he was not aware of any new snags or repair work being done there.
Rather than a refinery issue at Burnaby, the source said be believed Washington's imports are lower this year because the state is awash in surplus fuel stocks. Indeed, the whole West Coast "is oversupplied," a second USWC gasoline source said.
This lines up with US Energy Information Administration data Wednesday morning showing USWC gasoline stocks in the week ended August 10 at 30.288 million barrels, 8.8%, or more than 2.4 million barrels, above the prior three-year average for this week.
On Wednesday evening, Platts assessed suboctane gasoline in Seattle at September NYMEX RBOB futures minus 2.25 cents/gal, which is well below the September futures plus 21 cents/gal assessment from the year-ago date.
