California , the nation’s largest gasoline market, received the least amount of oil by rail in 17 months as cheaper in-state supplies and imports eliminated the need for Canadian supplies. The most populous U.S. state took 11,612 barrels a day by rail in September, a 7.5 percent drop from a month earlier and down from a peak of 38,086 barrels a day in December, California Energy Commission data show. Shipments from Canada, which made up 76 percent of California’s oil-by-rail receipts last November, tumbled to zero, the agency said on its website . The slide in Canadian shipments highlights how competition is growing to supply the western U.S. as refining markets elsewhere in the nation drive out imports by processing more domestic shale oil. Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) ’s Torrance refinery near Los Angeles was said to shut a crude unit in September, cutting the cost of oil from […]