It’s essential for a daily fixture of life in the United States — a morning commute for many working Americans — and for transportation of basic goods in the US.

The US is dependent on gasoline for nearly every aspect of transportation, but the hard reality for the country’s drivers is that its refiners don’t produce near enough to meet demand. Government data shows we now consume about 9.3 million b/d of gasoline nationwide. To offset the shortfall, the US imports about 710,000 b/d of gasoline — more than two cargo ships per day.

But new environmental rules that took effect at the beginning of the year may encourage US refiners to send additional gasoline outside the United States. In addition, many European refiners who send their excess gasoline to the US may instead be sending additional product to West Africa and Latin America.

The US government now requires finished gasoline to average 10 ppm sulfur, from the previous average of 30 ppm. Refiners, both foreign and domestic, must average 10 ppm sulfur or buy credits to offset the difference. The new rule has caused a lot of uncertainty in the gasoline market and many believe it will divert imports that normally come here while encouraging US refiners to send their product elsewhere.

At the moment, most Atlantic Coast gasoline traders consider the arbitrage from Europe closed and say it will likely stay that way until the distribution chain dips further into its stocks.

Thomas Finlon, director of Energy Analytics Group, said the new sulfur requirements for gasoline in the United States are causing uncertainty about the cost to remove sulfur to meet new environmental regulations.

“A lot of refineries are having a hard time with it,” he said. Many US refineries are running high sulfur crude slates, which makes it difficult to produce gasoline that meets the new sulfur specifications.

Although many of those refineries have hydrotreaters in place to reduce sulfur, that process can be expensive, he said. “This jump downward to 10 ppm is difficult and costly. That is the reason why gasoline inventories are not building,” he said, adding that gasoline inventories normally grow this time of year.

US Energy Information Administration data showed total gasoline stocks fell 1.6 million barrels to 227.1 million barrels for the week ending December 23.

In addition, he said the increase in gasoline exports to Mexico and ...