An Eagle-Eyed Reader Just Noted: A New Gasoline Production Record For The US -- June 25, 2016

Here's the link: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WGFRPUS2&f=W.

Here's the screenshot (thousand of bbls/day):

Not only is this a record, but:

• it happened in June, not necessarily the peak driving month in the western world; and,
• look how few weeks production actually goes over 10 million bbls/day

See this link also, record-setting gasoline consumption.

And this link, US gasoline demand setting new records as Americans appetite for SUVs grow.

By the way, note this from the EIA:

U.S. exports of petroleum products from the Gulf Coast to the west coast of South America, with destinations for Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, likely transit the Panama Canal.

With South American refining capacity trailing regional demand (which has expanded in countries such as Chile and Peru because of commodity-led economic growth), U.S. Gulf Coast refineries have increased exports of diesel and gasoline to these markets.

In 2015, the U.S. Gulf Coast exported a combined 159,000 barrels per day (b/d) of distillate to Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, an increase of 32,000 b/d compared with 2014.

The U.S. Gulf Coast also exported 63,000 b/d of motor gasoline to these three nations in 2015, an increase of 21,000 b/d over 2014. However, lower commodity prices in recent years could reduce economic growth in these countries and lessen demand for petroleum products from the U.S. Gulf Coast.

To what extent the French refinery strike affected US gasoline production, I have no idea, but I mentioned that it would be interesting to look at US gasoline production when the refinery strike was announced in France; the refinery strike shut down all eight (8) refineries in France, and they are not all back to full production yet, as far as I know.