Feb 27 (Reuters) - Inland physical crude oil grades mostly
weakened on Monday as refineries in Texas shut crude units in
recent days, dealers said.
WTI Midland crude eased 15 cents to a midpoint of a $2 a
barrel premium to U.S. crude futures.
Motiva Enterprises shut the large coker on Monday
at its 626,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Port Arthur, Texas,
refinery, people familiar with plant operations said. The 110,000-bpd DCU-2 coker is scheduled to be closed for
two weeks of repairs to an overhead pipe, the sources said.
The small crude distillation unit (CDU) at Pemex's 312,500 bpd Deer Park, Texas, refinery was shut following a
Thursday night fire, said people familiar with plant operations
on Friday. A fire broke out on the 70,000-bpd CDU-1 on Thursday night,
the sources said. The 270,000-bpd CDU-2 remains in operation at
the refinery.
Seven analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that
crude inventories rose by about 400,000 barrels in the week to
Feb. 24, ahead of industry and government data due to be
released on Tuesday and Wednesday.
* Light Louisiana Sweet for March delivery fell 50
cents to a midpoint of $3 and traded between a $2.90 and $3.10 a
barrel premium to U.S. crude futures .
* Mars Sour rose 20 cents to a midpoint of minus
$1.10 and traded between a $1.20 and $1 a barrel discount to
U.S. crude futures .
* WTI Midland fell 15 cents to a midpoint of $2
and traded between a $1.90 and $2.10 a barrel premium to U.S.
crude futures .
* West Texas Sour was unchanged at a midpoint of
minus 40 cents, seen bid and offered between a 50-cent and
30-cent a barrel discount to U.S. crude futures .
* WTI at East Houston, also known as MEH, traded from $2.15
to $2.35 over WTI.
* ICE Brent April futures fell 71 cents to settle at
$82.45 a barrel.
* WTI April crude futures fell 64 cents to settle at
$75.68 a barrel.
* The Brent/WTI spread narrowed 16 cents to
minus $6.68, after hitting a high of minus $6.52 and a low of
minus $6.83.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Richard Chang)
