Pop Quiz: One Of The Three Following Headlines Is Fake -- Which One? -- August 18, 2021

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Twitter

Former president Trump: banned.
Taliban: not banned.

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Weekly EIA Petroleum Report

Before we get started, a reader wrote to tell me that farmers in Minnesota are paying 40% more for propane this year than last year. 

The numbers:

• US crude oil in storage: decreased by 3.2 million bbls;
• US crude oil in storage: now stands at 435.5 million bbls; 6% below the five-year average
• Refiners are operating at 92.2% of their operable capacity (yawn).
• Imports averaged 6.4 million bbls/day, down by 46,000 bbls; imports are now a whopping 14.1% more than same four-week period last year. Thank you, Mr Biden. I believe, Russia is our second biggest supplier, after Canada.
  
  
  
• Propane: inventories are 18% below the five-year average. Thank you, Mr Biden.
  
• Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.7 million bbls last week; are not 8% below the five-year average;
• But look at this: total products supplied are up by 13.2% from same period last year.
• Jet fuel supplied: was up 56.1% compared to same period last year

Gasoline demand, link here, down on both the top line (four-week average demand) and the bottom line (weekly demand):