Gasoline fell on speculation the shutdown of a gasoline-making unit at Hovensa LLC’s St. Croix refinery won’t cause a supplies shortage because U.S. inventories are adequate to meet demand. U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose to a six-week high last week, according to the Energy Department. Futures sank yesterday after Hovensa said it shut the 150,000-barrel-a-day fluid catalytic cracker at the largest refinery in the Caribbean, which supplies the U.S. East Coast market. “Gasoline was overdone because we don’t know how long this refinery will be down and we have a cushion of supplies that can meet demand,” said Phil Flynn, vice president of research at PFGBest in Chicago. Gasoline for January delivery fell 1.2 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $2.3285 a gallon at 9:17 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures were heading for a weekly decline. The St. Croix refinery exported 139,000 barrels a day of gasoline and 64,000 barrels a day of distillate fuel to the U.S. East Coast in September, according to Energy Department data. The plant supplies fuel to the New York Harbor market, the delivery point for the Nymex gasoline contract. The premium of gasoline over crude oil, or the crack spread, based on January contracts, narrowed 43 cents to $9.50 a barrel. Heating oil for January delivery rose 0.02 cent to $2.467 a gallon and was heading toward a weekly loss. The crack spread, based on January contracts, gained 2 cents $15.26 a barrel. Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, rose 0.2 cent to $2.977 a gallon yesterday, AAA said on its website. To contact the reporter on this story: Barbara Powell in Dallas at bpowell4@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Stets at dstets@bloomberg.net

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