RBOB in New York Harbor ceded support this week and nearly flipped to a discount to the front-month futures contract in late April barge and pipeline cash trading as shippers from Ireland, Turkey and other atypical arbitrage players tried to capture US value, sources said.
The BW Thames delivered 418,000 barrels of gasoline blendstock and alkyate Sunday at Perth Amboy, New Jersey, from an unspecified Irish port, with Trafigura as the shipper and consignee, according to US Customs data compiled by S&P Global Platts Analytics and made public Tuesday.
Ireland has been an infrequent shipper of gasoline to the US, with modest amounts seen in 2018 and 2014, US Energy Information Administration data showed. Ireland has one major refinery: Irving Oil's Whitegate facility.
Gasoline from Turkey and Spain also sought to capture the Atlantic arbitrage, sources said.
"It looks like the US is overbuying," a Europe gasoline trader said. "It could calm down soon."
Refinery maintenance on the US Gulf Coast and East Coast originally attracted the attention of gasoline sellers.
RBOB at summer-grade 9 RVP for barges and the Buckeye pipeline for late April was assessed at the NYMEX May RBOB futures contract plus 35 points Monday and talked by sources at the same level Tuesday. The same gasoline for May 10 was heard traded at 60 points below May futures.
The RBOB differential has been falling at a rate of 15 points/day since March 29 at a time when it would be expected to reflect stronger demand ahead of summer driving.
Just since Friday, East Coast ports have landed gasoline cargoes besides Trafigura's from: Vitol in New Jersey, Cepsa in Delaware, Shell in New Jersey, Equinor in New York, ExxonMobil in New Jersey and Irving in Maine, Customs data show.
In the week that ended April 5, US gasoline demand reached the closest it had been so far this year to 10 million b/d, hitting 9.81 million b/d. Data for the week that ended April 12 will be released Wednesday by the EIA.
The figure for last week is expected to be limited by winter storms that kept drivers home across the Great Plains from April 10 onwards. Demand is reflected in the figure for gasoline supplied published weekly by the EIA.
