Gasoline Demand Dumps

US DOE released April data yesterday, showing a sharp revision to April gasoline demand compared to the preliminary estimates;  down 3.7% YoY. or about 300,000 bpd, vs previous estimates of down 0.4%.
That is the lowest demand for gasoline in the month of April since 2002.

Demand for petroleum products in April down -437,000 bpd versus a year ago, or -2.7% and is the lowest demand for a month of April since 1997.

Demand for distillate was revised down to 0.5% below a year ago, at 3.689 million bpd. 

Crude throughput averaged 14.302 million bpd, down 818,000  from a year ago, the lowest for April since 1996.

The US Highway Administration had shown that Vehicles-Miles of Travel had dropped by -2.4% in April versus a year ago.

No doubt the downward revisions reflect demand destruction but is it a result of the price surge in early February, bad weather in April, or some other dynamic like consumer confidence declines?  April is a little on the early side for the typical lagged response to higher prices, and if that is yet to come down the statistical pipe there may be further surprises in store.
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WTI Update- a 4 Handle Future?

Image
From my last post Dec 28, " Before we get into next year, short term the WTI has a good deal of upside risk to between $48 and $54, with $51.50 being my favorite cluster of resistance/ and a measured target for a 4th wave." Hourly click to enlarge As can be seen, WTI is in the high side of that range and evidencing some recent weakness. It does have a "look" that could produce a higher high at the top end of the range there, or even somewhat higher.  However the greater risk, short and medium term is to the downside from here.  It may turn out that a "b" wave chop down is in the cards with a subsequent "c" wave up,  but that kind of move can be deep and retest the lows . See above Fib retracements, particularly the .618 and .78  Longer Term Risk For Bulls AND Bears The Decline click to enlarge While the labeling of the subwaves above can be argued,  including whether the wave down is completed yet or not,   the $
Read more

Biden Climate Plan and Global GDP

Image
 KUDOS, and I mean it, to Biden. Real implementation will be incredibly difficult and failure will mean doom (don t think your grandchildren are going to survive in a world without plankton).  By next election cycle the path the world is on will be visible to all and most likely we will see spiking carbon emissions, devastating weather catastrophes, the need for even more investment, carbon taxes, and even more weaponizing of painful choices.  The pandemic definitely decreased global emissions. To stay under the limit on future emissions needed to keep climate temps under the 1.5 centigrade increase, that same decrease in emissions Y on Y has to be achieved every year until 2030. Reality No.1)  Co2 and other greenhouse gas emissions have a very high correlation w Global GDP, .87 to .93 Climate change is unfortunately global so don t bother with arguments based on regional data. In the United States some progress growing GDP while cutting emissions has been achieved in some locales. Mos
Read more

Gasoline a By-product of Distillate

From FT Energy... US petroleum stocks fit for bursting Posted by Izabella Kaminska on Jan 14 11:45. Weekly US energy inventory data release on Wednesday confirmed the unbelievable. US petroleum stocks rose in the week despite especially cold weather in the region during the period. Meanwhile, Dennis Gartman of the Gartman Letter draws attention to the fact that aggregate inventory rose by 8.9m barrels, amongst the largest weekly aggregate increase ever. More absurdly still, gasoline stocks are now at levels not seen in two years — some 10m barrels higher than they were last year....... The market responded to the disconnect between distillate and gasoline demand by storing the former offshore in floating storage. This is easily done for distillates. But now that we’ve seen a bit of a pickup in demand for distillates because of the weather, a potential surplus of gasoline has been produced. And, unlike distillates, gasoline is not easily stored offshore. Hence the probab
Read more