The United States continues trend toward exporting more gasoline than it imports (11/29/2017)

Despite record high gasoline consumption, the United States is on pace to export more gasoline than it imports for the second year in a row. Changes in regional markets, increased demand for exports, and high refinery runs are once again leading to the United States to be a net exporter in 2017. ... More »

Gasoline prices ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday are higher than last year (11/22/2017)

The weekly average U.S. gasoline price heading into the 2017 Thanksgiving holiday is $2.57 per gallon (gal), 41 cents/gal higher than it was the week before Thanksgiving last year and 47 cents/gal higher than at the same time in 2015. However, gasoline prices are more than 19 cents/gal lower than the previous five-year average for the same date (Figure 1). Although refinery operations have recovered after hurricane outages, higher crude oil prices, tighter inventories, and stronger demand (measured as product supplied) have all contributed to higher current gasoline prices. ... More »

Exchange-traded funds play an increasing role in oil futures markets (11/15/2017)

Although exchange-traded funds (ETF) are relatively new, their increased positions of oil futures contracts in recent years may have, at times, affected market liquidity and price volatility. ETFs allow smaller capitalized investors indirect access to the oil futures market. Their growth has likely contributed to the increased volume in crude oil futures trading and the number of outstanding contracts (open interest), but the effects on price direction are unclear. ... More »

Transportation constraints and export costs widen the Brent-WTI price spread (11/8/2017)

In its November Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts the price difference between West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil priced at Cushing, Oklahoma and Brent, the global crude oil price benchmark, to remain at $6 per barrel (b) through the first quarter of 2018 before narrowing to $4/b during the second half of 2018 (Figure 1). WTI averaged $2/b lower than Brent price through the first eight months of 2017 and averaged $6/b lower than the Brent price in September and October. ... More »

An increasingly large share of U.S. distillate production is exported (11/1/2017)

U.S. distillate exports have continued to increase significantly over the first part of 2017, setting record highs for three consecutive months from May through July (Figure 1) before declining in August (at least partially as the result of hurricane activity). At the same time, U.S. distillate demand was relatively stable, increasing only slightly from January through July 2017 compared with 2016 levels. ... More »