Overcooking US gasoline demand

Has the country been burning more gasoline than ever before? The data paint a confusing picture

Herculean US gasoline demand has been propping up cracking margins on both sides of the Atlantic since the beginning of last year. In response, refiners have pumped out as much of the road fuel-and other products besides-as they can, chasing maximum profit. But are American drivers really hitting the roads with such abandon? To find out, the oil industry relies on Energy Information Administration (EIA) data, the best and most transparent source of consumption numbers available. Those data have been bullish, showing that as the annual driving season kicked in US gasoline demand soared to a record 9.82m barrels a day in the week ending 17 June. That was 160,000 b/d more than a year earlier. I