EIA report: Distillate exports increase, Gulf Coast production meets East Coast needs

Recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows both an increase in net distillate exports and an inverse relationship between distillate imports and exports on the Gulf Coast and East Coast.

Exports of distillate, which comprise the largest portion of U.S. petroleum product exports, reached nearly 1.2 million barrels per day (b/d) in 2015, with an increase of 85,000 b/d. Exports have averaged at least one million b/d each year for the past four years, with exports delivered to 88 countries in 2015. The largest share of these exports is shipped to Central and South American countries.

The largest petroleum refining region in the country is the Petroleum Administration for Defense District 3, or the Gulf Coast, where more than 50 percent of U.S. refining capacity is located. With regional demand lower than production, the Gulf Coast region serves as a provider for other regions in the U.S. as well as foreign markets. Eighty-seven percent of U.S. distillate exports originated in the Gulf Coast region in 2015.

Conversely, demand for distillate exceeds production on the East Coast – where approximately one-quarter of households use heating oil for space heating – with the region’s imports making up 85 percent of the nation’s import totals.