Gasoline RBOB
The US wholesale gasoline futures contract, tracking the blendstock before ethanol and taxes.
Overview
RBOB, reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending, trades on NYMEX in 42,000 gallon contracts, and the crack spread over crude approximates the refining margin. Demand peaks in the summer driving season, and seasonal vapor pressure rules shift formulations by region, creating localized spikes. Ethanol is blended at around 10 percent at the rack, so the contract excludes it. Weekly EIA inventory data moves prices, and hurricanes that knock Gulf Coast refineries offline spike cracks, as after Katrina and Harvey. California trades its own CARBOB market under separate environmental rules, making West Coast pump prices a world apart from the Gulf Coast rack.
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