US Cash Crude-Mixed on first day of April roll

* LLS gains 15 cents to trade at WTI plus $22.75
* WTS trades at WTI minus $6.00, down 40 cents
* Poseidon done at WTI plus $13.90, up 20 cents

By Janet McGurty
NEW YORK, March 21 (Reuters) - U.S. cash crude grade
differentials were mixed on the first day of the roll period,
with refiners looking to finish buying their crude supplies for
the month of April.
The April futures contract expired at the end of trade on
Tuesday.
Roll period began on Wednesday for physical traders, who
make deals against expired WTI for three days to balance
pipeline slates ahead of Friday's unofficial pipeline scheduling
deadline.
Key Gulf of Mexico cash crude benchmark, Light Louisiana
Sweet , gained 15 cents to trade at $22.75 over thee U.S.
futures benchmark, West Texas Intermediate.
Midcontinent crude West Texas Sour shed 40 cents to
trade at $6.00 under WTI.
Poseidon traded as an outright at $13.90 over WTI and
at a $1.05 and a $1.25 discount to Mars Sour .
"Some of the deals are nothing but switching from one grade
for another for refiner preference," said John Troland,
independent oil analyst based in Houston, Texas.
The WTI-Brent spread stood at $17.12 a barrel,
in from Tuesday's $18.05 settlement in favor of Brent. The
spread settled at $17.15 on Monday.
Inventories of crude fell by 1.2 million barrels. However,
crude oil inputs to refineries also fell by 100,000 barrels per
day, pushing down refinery utilization 0.5 percent to 82.2
percent of total capacity, according to weekly inventory data
released on Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.
On futures markets, May WTI stood up $1.11 a barrel
at $107.18. May Brent shed 4 cents to trade at $124.08.
Oil rose above $124 a barrel on Wednesday as a surprise
drop in U.S. inventories and tension over Iran countered Saudi
Arabia's efforts to lower prices by pledging to boost supply to
meet any shortages. .

-------------------------------------------------------
See for recent cash crude deals
See for Reuters' generic refining margins
See for the WTI front/second month spread
See for front month WTI/Brent futures spread
See for Reuters' assessment of Dated Brent
See for Reuters assessed tanker rates
See for assessed domestic crude differentials
See for outright U.S. cash crude prices
See for a list of U.S. refinery outages
See for U.S. EIA inventory reports and forecasts