US Cash Products-NYH jet firm; USG gasoline in broad range

NEW YORK, Sept 5 (Reuters) - New York Harbor jet fuel on Friday held gains from late Thursday on strong demand and a dearth of barrels shown due to supply disruption by Hurricane Gustav but other distillates were flat, traders said.

"It's offered still from tight supply ... We are still waiting on refinery start-ups and the Colonial Pipeline," said one NY Harbor cash distillates trader, referring to jet fuel.

In other markets, Gulf Coast gasoline moved in a broad range in quiet pre-weekend trade while Chicago gasoline differentials added a 2-cent gain on tight supplies due to Gustav-induced supply disruptions.

Colonial Pipeline said on Friday that the return of a booster station has allowed it to increase rates on its main oil products pipeline but that flow was still reduced by power outages after Hurricane Gustav. [ID:nN05491187]

Gulf Coast refineries in restart include Exxon's Baton Rouge and Chalmette plants in Louisiana, Citgo's Lake Charles, La., refinery and Murphy's Meraux, La, complex. A number of other plants, including Conoco's Alliance refinery in Louisiana, remain shut.

"But, at least it appears that no refineries are going to be down for months that it took to return some refineries to service after Katrina," noted one Gulf-based market watcher.

Valero said Friday it had shut a heavy oil cracker at its Corpus Christi, Texas refinery after a small fire and the outage will cut gasoline output by 80,000 bpd. [ID:nN05479926]

Motiva reduced rates at its 290,000 bpd refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, due to a unit upset. [ID:nN05504289]

Energy markets turned their focus to Hurricane Ike, which according to the National Hurricane Center will advance toward the Gulf of Mexico, home to big energy infrastructure by Wednesday.

For a list of refinery outages, click [REF/US]

U.S. GULF COAST <0#P-USG>

U.S. Gulf Coast cash differentials for prompt M3 gasoline bobbled up and down in quiet trade, with 26 cents over the October NYMEX RBOB screen for cycle 52 seen at midday.

"It's really quiet. The range is now 25 by 29," said one Gulf Coast broker,

Trade started at 30 cents over the screen, then moved down to 31, 30.50, 30, 29, 28, 23 cents over before moving back up to trade at 26 cents over.

On Thursday, prompt cycle 52 traded as high as 36 cents over the screen before dipped back to trade at 31 cents over.

Distillate trade was quiet with 61 grade ultra-low sulfur diesel dropping further to trade down about 3 cents at 6.00 cents over the October NYMEX heating oil screen. 74 low sulfur diesel, which was offered at 8.00 cents over the screen on Thursday, moved to talk at 2.50/3.00 cents over.   Continued...