Energy & Financial Markets
What drives petroleum product prices?
Graphs & data updated monthly and quarterly
What drives petroleum product prices: Overview
Although crude oil prices receive a lot of media attention, consumers purchase petroleum products refined from crude oil rather than the crude oil itself. Refiners produce many petroleum products from crude oil for a wide range of applications. Prices for some petroleum products, such as gasoline, are very visible to consumers, while others are much less so. This section focuses on the two most prominent groups of petroleum products—gasoline and distillate (or diesel fuel).
Graphs are updated with new data on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis according to the schedule below.
All graphs| Graph update schedule by section | Update frequency | Last update |
|---|---|---|
| Balance | Gasoline Inventories and gasoline 3rd minus 1st month futures contract | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| Distillate Inventories and heating oil 3rd minus 1st month futures contract | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| Trade | ||
| U.S. total gasoline net imports | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| U.S. total gasoline net imports by PADD | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| U.S. distillate fuel net imports | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| U.S. distillate fuel net imports by PADD | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| Production | ||
| Gasoline refinery output | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| Distillate refinery output | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| Refinery output | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| Production and futures prices | Annual | 12/31/2015 |
| Spot Prices | ||
| Gasoline spot prices | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| Distillate spot prices | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| RBOB futures price and crack spread | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| Heating oil futures price and crack spread | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| RBOB - Brent Crack Spread Range | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| ULSD - Brent Crack Spread Ranges | Monthly | 11/30/2016 |
| Financial Markets | ||
| Average daily open interest of petroleum product futures contracts | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| Average daily volume of petroleum product futures contracts | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| U.S. exchange-traded futures positions by money managers | Quarterly | 9/30/2016 |
| Consumption | ||
| Petroleum product consumption | Annual | 12/31/2015 |
| U.S. consumption of gasoline and retail gasoline prices | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
| U.S. consumption of distillate and retail heating oil prices | Monthly | 12/06/2016 |
