US Ethanol Inventory Climbs

By DTN Staff

CRANBURY, N.J. (DTN) -- Inventory of ethanol in the United States increased for the fourth straight week through Dec. 2, up 400,000 barrels (bbl) to a 23.3-million-bbl 15-week high, statistics from the Energy Information Administration released Wednesday show.

Ethanol restocking was realized as plant production ramped up 59,000 barrels per day (bpd) to a 1.077-million-bpd 2022 high, with the previous high realized in December 2021 at 1.087 million bpd. During the four weeks ending Dec. 2, U.S. ethanol plant production averaged 1.037 million bpd, 29,000 bpd or 2.7% below the corresponding four weeks in 2021.

Blending demand declined last week, with refiner and blender net inputs of ethanol falling 43,000 bpd or 4.8% on the week to 848,000 bpd. All PAD districts experienced lower blending activity except the PADD 4 Rocky Mountain region, where net inputs were flat at 29,000 bpd. During the four weeks ended Dec. 2, net ethanol inputs averaged 879,000 bpd, near flat with the year-ago 882,000 bpd blending rate.

Regionally, stock builds were realized in the Gulf and West coast destination markets, while inventory in the PADD 2 Midwest producer region was drawn down 300,000 bbl to 9.1 million bbl. PADD 1 East Coast ethanol stocks were unchanged at 7 million bbl during the week profiled, and flat in PADD 4 at 300,000 bbl. PADD 3 ethanol stocks increased 400,000 bbl to 4.3 million bbl last week, and by 200,000 bbl to 2.6 million bbl in PADD 5.

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