Even before Hurricane Harvey shut down more than 20 percent of U.S. refining capacity, U.S. diesel, jet fuel, and heating oil stocks had dropped during the summer months, for the first time since record keeping began in 1982, a Reuters analysis of EIA data showed on Friday. Distillate inventories dropped by 2.2 percent between June and September, the first ever fall in that period since 1982. To compare, distillate stocks have typically increased by an average 10 percent since 2000 during the summer months, because that’s when refiners consciously build distillate inventories to prepare for increased fall and winter demand for heating oil and harvesting. But this year, thanks to a surprisingly high summer demand of diesel, jet fuel, and heating oil, those stocks did something unprecedented—they dropped. Part of the demand was due to U.S. exports of those products, especially to Latin America. Currently, U.S. distillate stocks are […]