U.S. cash crude grades inch lower on refinery maintenance

NEW YORK, Oct (KOSDAQ: 039200.KQ - news) 14 (Reuters) - U.S. cash crudes slid lower in a thinly traded market on Monday as more refineries took units offline for planned autumn maintenance.

Marathon Petroleum Corp began planned work on a crude distillation and other units at its 490,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Garyville, Louisiana, refinery, the company said on Monday.

Valero Energy also said repairs that began last week on a fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC (Madrid: FCC.MC - news) ) at its 93,000 bpd Three Rivers, Texas, refinery will last six weeks.

Nearly 720,000 barrels per day of Gulf Coast refining capacity is expected to be offline for maintenance work this month, according to trade sources, and maintenance is still underway at Exxon Mobil's 503,000 bpd Baton Rouge, Louisiana, plant.

Light Louisiana Sweet (LLS-) for November delivery traded early at $2.90 a barrel over the benchmark U.S. crude futures contract, flat to Friday levels, but then fell to $2.50 a barrel over futures. It was later bid at $2.50 over and offered at $2.70 over benchmark futures.

West Texas Intermediate crude at Midland (WTM-) traded at $3.00, $3.05 and $3.10 a barrel under benchmark futures, about 10 cents lower than Friday.

November West Texas Sour (WTS-) traded at $4.25 a barrel under futures, about 20 cents lower than Friday.

In the futures market, U.S. crude's discount against global benchmark Brent (CL-LCO1=R) settled at $8.63 a barrel. It had hit its highest level since June at $10.01 on Friday.

U.S. oil futures settled 39 cents higher at $102.41 while Brent crude ended 24 cents lower at $111.04 a barrel. (Reporting by Selam Gebrekidan; editing by Jim Marshall)