The United States Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) published an August 28th report titled:

Changing Demand for Petroleum Products Has Led to Operational Changes at U.S. Refineries (“Report”)

Utilizing information from EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly publication, the Report noted that:

. . . demand for motor gasoline and jet fuel in particular has fallen to its lowest level in years.

Travel restrictions and other impacts of COVID-19 are cited as the principal cause.

The decrease in consumption of these petroleum products is stated to have resulted in United States refineries revising their operations which has resulted in:

. . . proportionately less production of motor gasoline and jet fuel and more production of distillate fuel oil.

The Report notes that three products have the highest yield percentage from refineries. In 2019 refinery average yields included:

• Motor gasoline 46%
• Distillate fuel oil 30%
• Jet fuel 10%

Refineries are noted to be able to change their petroleum product output by:

• Running downstream units
• Running units that process the output from distillation units in a different manner

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.