US ethanol production rose 10,000 b/d for the reporting week ended August 31 to a two-month high of 829,000 b/d as weekly ethanol stocks rose 238,000 barrels to a month-high of 18.732 million barrels, Energy Information Administration data released Thursday showed.
Specifically, ethanol stocks were on a three-week climb to the highest level since the reporting week ended July 27, when they were at 19.401 million barrels.
The build in overall ethanol stocks was mainly on stock increases in the Gulf Coast and West Coast.
West Coast ethanol stocks climbed 103,000 barrels, to 2.254 million barrels. Gulf Coast ethanol stocks jumped by 279,000 barrels, to a four-week high of 2.601 million barrels. Gulf Coast stocks have not been that high since being at 2.618 million barrels for the reporting week ended August 3.
The build in the Gulf Coast was most likely due to resumed traffic after the passing of Hurricane Isaac through Louisiana, sources said.
Other US regions experienced stock draws. East Coast ethanol stocks drew down 100,000 barrels, to 7.221 million barrels, and Midwest stocks dropped 31,000 barrels, to 6.407 million barrels.
Ethanol stocks in the Rocky Mountain region edged down 13,000 barrels, to 249,000 barrels, the lowest level so far this year, Inventories in the region have not been this low since the reporting week ended December 23, 2011, when they were at 247,000 barrels.
BLENDING PERCENTAGE DIPS
As the the weekly refiner and blender net input of ethanol fell 4,000 b/d, to 841,000 b/d, ethanol days of supply moved up 0.4 day to a month-high 22.3 days of supply. Days of supply are calculated by dividing weekly ethanol stock levels by the weekly refiner and blender ethanol net input.
The weekly ethanol blending percentage dipped 1.7 percentage points, to 91% as the weekly overall amount of gasoline produced increased 93,000 b/d, to 9.276 million b/d, while the weekly amount of gasoline blended with ethanol decreased 34,000 b/d, to 8.443 million b/d.
The amount of gasoline blended with ethanol is calculated by adding the volume of reformulated gasoline blended with ethanol and conventional gasoline blended with ethanol. The ethanol blending percentage is calculated by dividing the weekly amount of gasoline blended with ethanol by weekly total gasoline production.
The four-week rolling average of motor gasoline demand gained 85,000 b/d to a new 2012 high of 9.158 million b/d. As gasoline demand was reported at 9.097 million b/d at this time last year, this was the first time since July 2011 that the current year weekly gas demand figure surpassed that of the previous year. Year-to-date, current year gasoline demand in 2012 was 4.6% below that of 2011.
Although ethanol production and stocks grew in the latest reported week, the considerably higher gasoline demand figure was considered by sources to be a favorable sign for ethanol demand in the coming months, especially considering that the end of August is generally considered to be the end of the summer driving season.
