California Gasoline Falls on Speculation Oil Supplies to Rise

Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- California-blend gasoline in Los Angeles fell for a fifth straight day amid speculation crude prices will fall with the return of output from Libya.

The premium for California-blend gasoline, or Carbob, in Los Angeles fell 4 cents to 13 cents a gallon above gasoline futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 4:11 p.m. East Coast time, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The premium for the fuel narrowed by almost two-thirds this week, reaching the lowest level since Sept. 21.

Brent crude on the ICE Futures Europe exchange fell 20 cents to $109.56 to drop 4.5 percent for the week as analysts predicted Libyan oil output would increase. California’s Energy Department said yesterday that crude oil input at state refineries rose 2.2 percent to 11.2 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 14.

“Now that the Libyan conflict has been resolved and more oil from the Canadian tar sands is coming online, crude supply is looking good,” said Bob Van Der Valk, an independent fuel- pricing analyst in Terry, Montana.

San Francisco Carbob slipped 4 cents to a premium of 10 cents over gasoline futures, the lowest level since Sept. 21.

The premium for conventional, 87-octane gasoline in Portland, Oregon, fell 0.38 cents to 29.5 cents versus futures.

--Editors: Richard Stubbe, Charlotte Porter

To contact the reporter on this story: Gene Laverty in Calgary at glaverty@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net