Gasoline Prices Hit 2 Year High After Largest US Refinery Goes Offline for 2 Weeks

Gasoline spiked to a more-than-two-year high on Thursday after a report that the largest U.S. refinery could remain offline for up to two weeks due to impacts from Tropical Depression Harvey.

Meanwhile, U.S. crude oil prices were on track to post the steepest monthly losses in more than a year as concerns spread over falling demand in the world’s top oil-consuming country after storm Harvey knocked out almost a quarter of its refineries.


West Texas Intermediate graph

U.S. gasoline futures were up about 12 percent at $2.1108 per gallon by 10:30 a.m. ET, near the highest level since June, 2015. The contract was on track for its biggest one-day gain since March 1, 2016.

Motiva Enterprises’ Port Arthur, Texas refinery, the nation’s largest, may be shut as long as two weeks for assessment of the plant and repair of any damage, sources familiar with plant operations said on Thursday.

“That two weeks could become four. They’re thinking Motiva and they’re thinking everyone else in Beaumont, Port Arthur,” said Andrew Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates.

via CNBC

Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.

Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza