California-Bound Gasoline Cargoes Set for Arrival Amid Refinery, Pipe Work
More than 1 million barrels of gasoline are set to arrive in California within the next 10 days, as market participants navigate pipeline constraints in the Pacific Northwest and refinery maintenance events in Los Angeles.
Four marine tankers transiting the Panama Canal last week will enter California from Nov. 22 to Nov. 26, carrying 1.174 million bbl of gasoline, according to Vortexa shipping data. An additional cargo carrying 293,200 bbl of gasoline from the U.S. Virgin Islands is slated for Nov. 22 arrival into the Los Angeles area while 308,500 bbl from Canada and 299,000 bbl from the Bahamas are scheduled for Nov. 24 and Nov. 25 delivery to the Long Beach area.
On Nov. 26, around 277,700 bbl of gasoline from the Bahamas will reach San Francisco, according to Vortexa data.
The Olympic Pipeline, the Pacific Northwest’s primary fuel artery, was shut down following the observance of a sheen on Nov. 11 near the pipeline’s right of way, according to a statement from BP, the pipeline’s operator.
The sheen was observed near Everett, Wash., about 25 miles north of Seattle.
Crews have since identified the 20-inch pipeline to be the source of the release, the spokesperson added. The 16-inch pipeline was partially restarted early Sunday and fuel deliveries, including jet fuel to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, resumed.
While the 20-inch pipeline is still “shutdown for repairs,” no product has been observed outside of the immediate response area, according to a BP spokesperson.
“Barriers have been installed to prevent any flow through the drainage ditch, and additional measures will be taken if necessary to prevent product migration,” the spokesperson said. “Upon identification of the precise source, it will be secured, and recovery work will continue.”
Excavation work was planned to begin Tuesday morning to help crews identify the source of the release, the BP spokesperson said.
Looking at California, planned flaring for “start-up/shut down” is ongoing at Phillips 66’s 156,000 b/d refinery in Los Angeles and is expected to end on Dec. 1. Phillips 66 stopped processing oil at its Los Angeles refinery in October, OPIS previously reported, and the company plans to idle the remaining units as it moves to close the plant by year’s end.
Planned flaring is also ongoing at PBF Energy’s 166,200-b/d Torrance refinery, according to a regulatory filing. The flaring was scheduled to end on Nov. 17.
Maintenance work is scheduled to continue through Nov. 21 at the Carson section of Marathon Petroleum’s 384,500 b/d Los Angeles refining complex, according to company filings with the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
A separate planned flaring event was reported at the Carson section of Marathon Petroleum’s Los Angeles refining complex for “essential operational need.” The event is scheduled to end on Nov. 26.
–Reporting by Shaheer Naveed, snaveed@opisnet.com and Eric Wieser, ewieser@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com