Alto Ingredients Inc (ALTO)

[betthe4horse]

US ethanol stocks draw again amid tumbling production: EIA

http://www.platts.com/latest-news/agriculture/houston/us-ethanol-stocks-draw-again-amid-tumbling-production-21408404

Houston (Platts)--16Oct2014/547 pm EDT/2147 GMT




US ethanol stocks for the week ended October 10 shed 295,000 barrels to 18.356 million barrels, falling from an 18-month high for a second consecutive week amid a production decline of 16,000 b/d to 885,000 b/d, Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.

Supplies lowered amid tighter supplies in four of five regions, led by a 138,000-barrel draw in Gulf Coast stocks, which hit 3.028 million barrels, a four-week low.

East Coast stocks shed 58,000 barrels to 6.939 million barrels, and West Coast stocks dropped 112,000 barrels to 2.335 million barrels. Rocky Mountain stocks shed 5,000 barrels to 349,000 barrels, falling from an all-time high for a third straight week.

Midwest stocks, on the other hand, made a modest gain of 18,000 barrels to 5.705 million barrels. For the first time in 11 weeks, there were ethanol imports reported, totaling 3,000 b/d.


The four-week rolling average of gasoline demand ticked up 84,000 b/d to 8.782 million b/d, while the four-week rolling average of the refiner and blender net ethanol input moved up 10,000 b/d to 873,000 b/d. The weekly refiner and blender net ethanol input soared 27,000 b/d to 885,000 b/d.

As the rising blending demand trumped the uptick in gasoline demand, the four-week rolling average of the ethanol blending rate -- calculated by dividing the four-week rolling averages of the net ethanol input and gasoline demand -- was 2 percentage points higher at a 17-month high of 9.94%, 0.06 percentage point shy of the 10% "blend wall."

The blend wall occurs when the maximum amount of the US gasoline pool has been blended to a level of 10% ethanol. Refiners then will be under pressure to run higher ethanol blends, buy renewable credits known as RINs or push for Congress to alter the Renewable Fuel Standard.