Energy futures rebound on refinery woes

…The September gasoline contract led the way, reversing an early loss of more than a cent and gaining more than 5 cents on continued concerns about the impact of a mid-August fire at Chevron Corp.’s 330,000 barrel per day Pascagoula, Miss., refinery.

Trade media reports late last week said Chevron had canceled a 550,000-barrel Venezuelan crude order. The company has declined to verify that report, but did say, “we are working closely with our crude suppliers and expect some crude shipments may be canceled or rerouted to other refineries in our global network.”


Chevron’s problems, coupled with a surprisingly large decline in gasoline inventories last week, has some traders who had sold contracts scrambling to cover short positions, analysts said.

“With expiration of the September contract on Friday, this trading pattern indicates a need to cover previous shorts after the problems reported last week at Chevron’s Pascagoula refinery and another gasoline producing unit owned by Alon (USA Energy Inc.),” said Addison Armstrong, an analyst at TFS Energy Futures LLC in Stamford, Conn.

AP