US Cash Products-Refiner strike fears, outages boost gasoline

NEW YORK, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Gasoline led U.S. oil product gains on Friday as fears of a refinery workers' strike added to worries that supply may dwindle as plants undergo maintenance or undertake economic run cuts, traders said.

A possible strike by 30,000 U.S. refinery workers threatens to shutter more than half of the nation's refining capacity, although a top union negotiator expressed optimism a deal could be reached before Sunday's deadline. [ID:nN29306850]

"Gasoline is up a lot ... it's the threat of strike, I guess," a gasoline trader in the New York Harbor said.

In the Gulf, conventional M4 gasoline gained three cents while it posted similar gains in the New York Harbor and gained about 1.25 cents in the Chicago hub, brokers said.

Gulf Coast gasoline added to its Thursday gains when it moved into positive territory for the first time since October as contract talks between refiners and workers went on.

"The market also still has a U.S. refinery strike possibility," said Tim Evans of Citi Futures Perspective.

"Working without a contract for a time is a possibility if talks are still considered productive, so we would not assume that an immediate walkout is definite in the absence of an agreement," the energy analyst added in a report on Friday.

Top refiner Valero -- which shut its Texas City, Texas, refinery during a maintenance begun this week -- told employees it would idle refineries in Memphis, Tennessee and Delaware City, Delaware if there was a strike this weekend.

NYMEX March crude was up a tad, but February gasoline and heating oil were up more than 3 percent ahead of their Friday expiry. Evans said the expiry was "adding an element of time pressure to activity in those contracts." [O/N]