Gasoline glut in New York has traders sending cargo abroad

[HOUSTON] The biggest gasoline market in the US is bursting at the seams.

Traders are lining up to export gasoline and diesel from New York Harbour, an area that normally relies on fuel imports from Europe and eastern Canada, shipping data compiled by Bloomberg show.

While at least six cargoes that were headed to New York from Europe in January and early February were diverted to the Caribbean or the US Gulf Coast, that wasn't enough to stem the oversupply building up in terminals along the Eastern Seaboard. Record-high inventories in the region are now pushing prices low enough to turn the typical trade flow on its head.

"We have been exporting out of the New York Harbour, but clearly not enough, so that's putting pressure on the products," said Robert Campbell, head of oil products research for Energy Aspects, by phone from New York Thursday.

At least two million barrels of clean products like gasoline and diesel are planned to be exported from New York Harbour and Philadelphia in coming days.

BP Plc and Glencore Plc are among shippers sending fuels to West Africa and Europe as the US East Coast saw its gasoline stockpiles break a fresh record high for the third consecutive week.

Gasoline supplies in the Central Atlantic region of the East Coast, the delivery point for New York Mercantile Exchange futures contracts, rose to a record 42.3 million barrels last week, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Imports of fuel to the entire East Coast averaged about 350,000 barrels a day in the first 11 months of 2016 while exports averaged 138,000 barrels, EIA data show.

Total US gasoline stocks also touched a record 259 million barrels, even as American refiners produce less fuel during the height of refinery maintenance season. US crude unit outages are expected to average about one million barrels a day this month, and peaked last week at 1.29 million, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

BLOOMBERG