US Cash Products-Distillates strong on contango

NEW YORK, July 10 (Reuters) - Distillates remain strong despite weak demand as the market contango continues to support prices by putting barrels into storage, traders said on Friday.

The steep contango structure of the futures heating oil benchmark has pushed distillate stockpiles to a 25-year high as barrels continue to go into storage.

Support is also seen from refinery outages, most notably the outage of Valero's Ardmore, Oklahoma refinery hydrotreater, crude unit and gasoline-making fluid catalytic cracking unit after a fire last weekend.

Valero also has begun the shutdown for economic reasons of the 275,000-barrel-per-day Aruba refinery for two to three months. [ID:nN09456571]

U.S. crude oil futures hovered around the $60 per barrel level as demand stays weak through the end of the year, according to global watchdog International Energy Agency. [O/N]

For a complete list of refinery outages, click [REF/US]

U.S. GULF COAST <0#P-USG>

Prompt cycle 40 61-grade ultra low sulfur diesel held at 2.25 cents over the August heating oil screen.

Buying interest in contango storage barrels continue to dominate the market, with renewed mid-continent interest from Valero's shut hydrotreater at Ardmore, Oklahoma, refinery after a weekend fire.