NEW YORK: The amount of gasoline imports into the Atlantic Coast is expected to increase in the coming week, an analysis of Platts cFlow ship-tracking software data showed.
Platts cFlow is tracking a total of nine ships carrying a total of nearly 3.0 million barrels of unleaded gasoline or RBOB into PADD 1. Last week, seven ships carrying 2.5 million barrels of product were scheduled to arrive into the region.
Platts cFlow could understate the total level of imports because the software also shows an additional six ships moving 2.1 million barrels of unspecified clean products into the region. Any of those ships could be carrying gasoline.
Atlantic Coast gasoline traders have said they see a steady flow of RBOB headed into the region, but ships carrying European grade gasoline, which is used as a blendstock, have been scarce for months.
The flow of arbitrage cargoes to the US Atlantic Coast, a typical outlet for European gasoline, remains steady, supported by the open paper arbitrage and low stocks levels in the US, sources said.
The USAC-UKC gasoline arbitrage swap — which tracks the differential between the front-month US NYMEX RBOB futures contract and the equivalent EBOB gasoline swap — has been rebounding in recent days, and was heard at around 8.60 cents/gal at the European market close Monday.
Overall, sources said that strength in the US markets was reflected in wider RBOB/Brent crack spreads — a strength that was in turn tracked by the European market.
“RBOB/Brent [is] leading gasoline worldwide,” a trading source said.
The RBOB/Brent crack spread– the differential between the front-month US NYMEX RBOB futures and the front-month July ICE Brent futures contract — was assessed at $25.63/barrel at 16:30 London time Monday, up from $24.33/b at the same time Friday.
Eurobob gasoline barges — the Northwest European gasoline assessment — were assessed at $710.25/mt Monday, down from $713.50/mt Friday.
Imports of gasoline into the region typically supply about 20% of the demand, with the balance coming from local refineries and pipelines from the US Gulf Coast.
