The Los Angeles CARBOB differential spiked 17 cents Tuesday, a day after a nearly equal gain on refinery buying.
Traders said deals were done from NYMEX October RBOB plus 30 cents/gal up to plus 45 cents/gal. Platts assessed the main California-specific grade of gasoline at NYMEX October RBOB contract plus 28 cents/gal on Monday, which was up 17.50 cents.
Monday's rise came after Phillips 66 says it was restarting its 139,000 b/d Los Angeles complex after a weekend power outage and should have most units online by the end of the week. Phillips 66 was among those refiners buying, sources said.
Traders said Tesoro on Tuesday started buying after a reformer outage the night before at its 166,000 b/d Golden Eagle refinery near San Francisco.
San Francisco CARBOB was heard done at plus 51 cents/gal.
Tesoro said Tuesday it was performing maintenance on an unspecified unit and doesn't anticipate any impact on meeting supply. But one trader said they need to buy to meet that supply.
"It's a couple refiners buying and traders covering shorts," said a second market source, noting that other West Coast refiners also had smaller issues. "Traders are running ahead of refiners. It's the usual medley of issues going on."
The differential was assessed at plus 30 cents/gal on August 31, but declined each day except one before this week on steady refiner selling.
