US gasoline margins rise on report of FCC leak at PBF’s Delaware refinery

By Jarrett Renshaw

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- US gasoline margins jumped on Monday on news that PBF Energy was forced to abandon the restart of its 212,000-bpd refinery in Delaware City, Delaware, after a leak was discovered in the fluid catalytic cracker (FCC).

The refinery has halted production since Jan. 23, when the company said the blizzard that blanketed the East Coast caused a power outage. The company was in the process of restarting the refinery before abandoning those efforts on Monday after a leak was discovered in the fluid catalytic cracker, according to a report by Energy New Today.

The plant accounts for about 15% of refining capacity on the East Coast.

The gasoline crack spread jumped nearly 5% to a intraday high of $14.60/bbl after the report, before pairing gains.

The company has also decided to advance work on 49,000-bpd coker, a source familiar with the plant's operations told Reuters on Monday. The work, which was scheduled to begin in mid-March, will now begin on Feb. 11, the source said.

The work is expected to last up to six weeks, the source said.

The prolonged coker outage caused the company to shift its crude slate toward more light-sweet varieties. It was seen bidding up Bakken crude cargoes out of the Gulf Coast, according to two traders.

The coker processes heavy-sour crudes, which it recently has imported from Colombia, Canada and Iraq, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.