What Ever Happened to that “Crippling Diesel Fuel Shortage”?

• Back on about November 1 there were headlines everywhere suggesting that America was about to run out of diesel fuel.  Of course if that happened America would be in total meltdown mode because everything we eat, drink and buy is delivered to us using a truck burning diesel.  But since then we have watched the price of diesel fall by almost $1 per gallon which suggests there isn’t a shortage. It would appear that some reporters saw the statistic that there were only 25 days of diesel fuel in storage and they thought that was an impossibly low and dangerous number, but really it wasn’t. 

  It’s important to remember that news sources love to shock and terrify.  That’s how they get you to consume their news!  This blog has always just been about posting the headlines that we see and not necessarily analyzing the truth in the shock value of the headline. We blogged about the diesel fuel shortage back on November 1 because it was all over the news. We believe that all these dire headlines are just foreshadowing of how the world will one day meltdown during the great Tribulation.  There WILL BE a massive shortage of everything.  But not today.  So remember to read the headlines but maintain the Joy of the Lord, because that is our strength.

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  While stockpiles of distillate fuels (diesel and heating oil) are low, the country is not going to suddenly run out of diesel fuel, despite reports of a diesel shortage driven by widespread misunderstanding of a government statistic, according to industry officials.

  Looking specifically at the ultra-low sulfur diesel used in on-highway trucks and buses, stocks were about 95 million gallons for the weeks ending Oct. 14 and Oct. 21, according to EIA. This was down from 106.6 million in mid-September. The last time it was in this territory was late April and early May. Before this year, however, November 2014 was the last time ULSD stocks dipped below 100,000, records show.

  There are several factors at play in the low distillate stocks:

  • Fall is a time when refineries typically do maintenance. Tom Kloza with the Oil Price Information Service told CNBC, “October had the most refinery maintenance in the United States probably in a number of years.”
• S. refinery capacity has fallen in the past few years as some unprofitable refineries were closed.
• The cutoff of Russian oil imports. According to Forbes, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. was importing nearly 700,000 barrels per day of petroleum and petroleum products. Most of those imports were finished products and refinery inputs that boosted distillate supplies in the U.S, according to Forbes.

“Refineries do have a small amount of flexibility in shifting gasoline production to diesel production,” wrote Forbes’ Robert Rapier. “But it’s a relatively small amount.”

Some ocean tankers carrying diesel to Europe have been re-routed to the U.S., according to Reuters.

At the same time, there is increased demand for diesel because Mississippi River drought is forcing barge freight onto trucks. In the Northeast, the demand for heating oil is growing as that region moves into the winter months.

In its Oct. 12 Short-Term Energy Outlook, the EIA forecast that average household expenditures for home heating fuels would increase this winter because of both higher expected fuel costs and higher energy consumption due to colder temperatures. Compared with last winter, it predicts heating oil prices will rise by 27 percent from October to March.

 https://tanktransport.com/2022/12/analysts-dispute-diesel-shortage/