U.S. ethanol production down from last week’s record high

In Washington, D.C., ethanol production was down 9,000 b/d from last week’s record high, according to government data released and analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association. Ethanol production averaged 1.066 million barrels per day (b/d)—or 44.77 million gallons daily. The four-week average for ethanol production increased to a record 1.063 million b/d for an annualized rate of 16.30 billion gallons. Stocks of ethanol were 22.0 million barrels. That is a 0.5% increase from last week and a 19-week high. There were zero imports recorded for the third week in a row.

Average weekly gasoline demand decreased 9.1% to a 39-week low of 366.4 million gallons (8.724 million barrels) daily. This is equivalent to 133.7 billion gallons annualized. Refiner/blender input of ethanol increased 0.2% to 922,000 b/d, equivalent to 14.13 billion gallons annualized. Thus, gasoline supplied to the market contained an average of 10.57% ethanol–the highest weekly blend rate on record. Expressed as a percentage of daily gasoline demand, daily ethanol production increased to 12.22%–the highest rate in 41 weeks.