Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Data from the United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) (Washington, D.C.) shows that U.S. refiners are continuing their record-breaking productivity, setting a new high for the agency's four-week rolling average for U.S. refinery inputs.  The four weeks leading up to July 31 were the four highest weeks of U.S. refinery inputs in data that dates back to 1982.  For the week ending July 31, gross input at U.S. refineries topped 17 million barrels per day (BBL/d) for the first time.
The agency's data regarding U.S. refinery utilization show that for every week since April, more than 90% of U.S. refining capacity has been utilized, with the final week of July showing the highest utilization so far in 2015 at 96.1%.  Of course, along with this record amount of activity comes an increasing amount of refined products.  From January through July, U.S. finished gasoline production has averaged about 9.50 million BBL/d this year, compared to 9.13 million BBL/d for the corresponding period of 2014.  U.S. distillate production has risen from an average of 4.85 million BBL/d from January through July 2014 to 4.9 million BBL/d in 2015.
Domestic consumption is accommodating some, but not all, of this. The EIA reports that overall U.S. petroleum product supplied, which is indicative of demand, is up 2.5% for the first five months of the year compared with 2014.  Much of this is for gasoline, for which product supplied is up 2.9% year-over-year, while that of diesel and other distillates has risen less than 1%.
Export growth also has helped absorb some of this production.  U.S. exports for all petroleum products through July averaged 3.64 million BBL/d in 2015 compared to 3.40 million BBL/d for the corresponding period of 2014, showing an increase of about 7.2%.   However, last week's 811,000-barrel increase in U.S. gasoline supplies helped drive down the price of U.S. crude even further.
With the traditional fall maintenance season for refineries just around the corner, throughput and production are set to begin declining.  U.S. exploration and production companies, facing lower prices, could very well reduce their crude oil production during this time, leaving some wondering if the U.S. has perhaps seen peak production for the year.
Industrial Info is tracking more than $300 million in major planned maintenance activity at U.S. refineries that are planned to kick off from August through December this year. These and other unplanned outages will almost certainly curtail the record refining activity the U.S. has experienced this summer.
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