U.S. cash crude differentials largely strengthened on Friday, dealers said, as the market assessed the potential timelines for BP Plc BP.L to restart a large Midwest refinery after a power outage on Thursday.
BP has not yet set a date for restarting the 435,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Whiting, Indiana, refinery, the largest in the U.S. Midwest, following a plantwide shutdown due to a power outage, people familiar with plant operations said Friday.
BP was assessing units, piping and the electrical system for possible damage and to determine the exact cause of the power loss, initially attributed to a transformer failure, the sources said.
U.S. energy firms this week cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for the first time in three weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes BKR.O said in its closely followed report on Friday.
The oil and gas rig count, an early indicator of future output, fell by two to 619 in the week to Feb. 2.
Oil prices fell by about 2% on Friday and were headed for weekly losses after U.S. jobs data shrank the odds of imminent interest rate cuts in the world’s largest economy, which could dampen crude demand.
Meanwhile, U.S crude’s discount to international benchmark Brent widened on the day, last trading at minus $5.03. A wider discount encourages foreign buying of U.S. crudes.
Money managers raisedtheir net long U.S. crude futures and options positions in the week to Jan. 30 by 18,082 contracts to 117,226 , the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) said on Friday.
Light Louisiana Sweet for March delivery gained 10 cents at a midpoint of a $2.50 premium and was seen bid and offered between a $2.40 and $2.60 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures.
Mars Sour was unchanged at a midpoint of a 20-cent discount and was seen bid and offered between a 30-cent and 10-cent a barrel discount to U.S. crude futures.
WTI Midland gained 10 cents at a midpoint of a $1.5 premium and was seen bid and offered between a $1.40 and $1.60 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures.
West Texas Sour gained 85 cents at a midpoint of a 25-cent premium and was seen bid and offered between a 15-cent and 35-cent a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures.
WTI at East Houston, also known as MEH, traded between a $1.65 and $1.85 a barrel premium to U.S. crude futures CLc1
ICE Brent April futures fell $1.37 to settle at $77.33 a barrel on Friday.
WTI March crude futures fell $1.54 to settle at $72.28 a barrel on Friday.
The Brent/WTI spread widened last to minus $5.03, after hitting a high of minus $4.91 and a low of minus $5.09.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Daniel Wallis)