By Robert Tuttle
Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Refinery margins narrowed the most this month as OAO Gazprom’s resumption of gas shipments to the European Union may have reduced demand for heating oil.
Gas flows entered Slovakia early today after Ukraine and Russia resolved a dispute on gas prices and transit. Heating oil, a competing heating fuel to natural gas, fell as much as 7 percent, the biggest decline since Dec. 24.
The Russia-Ukraine agreement “pressured distillate in Europe and there is a knock-on effect over here,” said Andy Lipow, president of Houston-based Lipow Oil Associates LLC.
The margin earned by refiners for turning three barrels of oil into two of gasoline and one of heating oil fell $1.852, or 11 percent, to $15.604 a barrel at 10:14 a.m., the biggest decline since Dec. 22, based on New York futures prices.
Heating oil for February delivery fell 5.31 cents to $1.4203 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures for February delivery fell 3.05 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $1.1367 a gallon in New York.
Crude oil for February delivery fell 30 cents to $36.21 a barrel in New York.
To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Tuttle in New York at rtuttle@bloomberg.net
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment