News

1) The current situation in the U.S. gasoline market caused by the Colonial pipeline spill has been described by our fearless leader (Abudi Zein) as ‘pushing down on a balloon’: as one side is pressured lower, the other side swells up. This is exactly what is underway regarding regional gasoline supply and inventory.

East Coast gasoline stocks are being drawn down strongly amid a starvation of supply, while at the other end of the pipe, inventories on the Gulf Coast are swelling, as gasoline is stranded.

Gasoline imports into the East Coast last week were helped by a rebound in flows from both Northwest and Southern Europe, but a lack of cargoes from Canada mean there will be no blowout in terms of total imports from tomorrow’s weekly EIA inventory report.

As for the flip-side, Gulf Coast gasoline exports have been averaging around 700,000 barrels per day in the past few months, as exhibited by our ClipperData (hark, right). Nearly forty percent of these exports head to Mexico, while Latin America as a whole takes the overwhelming majori...