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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donald sew who wrote (41687)	7/13/1999 9:06:00 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 94695

Tuesday July 13, 7:53 pm Eastern Time Calif. spot gasoline prices return to record highs By Timna Tanners LOS ANGELES, July 13 (Reuters) - California's spot market gasoline prices have rocketed in recent days,returning to record high levels on Tuesday, as problems at several refineries have prompted big oil companies to bid up prices. San Francisco prices for California's special, ultra-clean CARB gasoline blend were at least $1.10 a gallon on the spot market -- double levels seen a month ago and as high as the record $1.10 a gallon on March 29. ''I think prices could go even higher than the last run-up,'' one trader said. ''There just isn't any gasoline out there.'' Prices in Los Angeles neared a record high spot CARB gasoline bid of $1.02 a gallon, with bidders offering at least 97.50 cents a gallon on Tuesday. Problems at several refineries in the state have left many companies scrounging to meet supply commitments for service stations, dealers said. The aftermath of two refinery fires, which contributed to the April price run-up, continued to keep prices up in the San Francisco Bay Area. Meanwhile, analysts and traders expressed surprise that retail prices had not mirrored the jump in the spot market. ''I'm surprised the majors are electing to keep pump prices so low. It's a business and they have to make a profit,'' one trader said. Record high gasoline prices in April sparked consumers to stage a quiet boycott of the pumps and legislators to complain to federal trade officials that oil companies were gouging motorists. The outcry prompted the Federal Trade Commission to launch an investigation of West Coast gasoline pricing. Among California refineries, sources close to Tosco said its 156,000-barrel-per-day Avon refinery was restarting slowly but surely, after a fatal February fire kept the refinery shut for more than four months. The refinery has restarted its crude distillation unit and fluid catalytic cracker, but not its hydrocracker or coking unit. Many industry players, however, had expected the refinery to be closer to normal operations by now. Tosco previously said it saw full operations by mid-July, but sources this week acknowledged it would not meet this deadline. In addition, Chevron's 235,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Richmond, Calif., has continued to struggle after a March fire required it to stop using its hydrocracker until year-end. Over the weekend the refinery took down its major gasoline producing unit -- its 65,000 barrel-a-day fluid catalytic cracker -- for unscheduled maintenance after problems on the unit, a source close to the refinery said. Talk of other unconfirmed refinery woes in southern California and the partial closure of a key Northwest pipeline in June after an explosion on the line has heightened a perceived shortage of West Coast fuel.