The U.S. Department of Energy has called on refiners to ramp up their diesel fuel production further, Reuters has reported, citing two high-ranking officials from the department. There are talks ongoing with refiners both in the United States and abroad, the report said.
This is the latest move on the part of the federal government to push diesel prices down from all-time highs, with the national average stuck above $6 per gallon.
The report follows a decision by President Trump to waive sanctions on Russian exports in a bid to secure additional diesel fuel supply. Russia earlier this year issued a ban on diesel fuel exports amid production disruptions from Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries. The ban has been lifted in response to Trump’s sanction waiver. However, the volumes agreed by the presidents of the United States and Russia are too small to make a difference, according to analysts.
Other measures pursued by the Trump administration also included the temporary removal of federal tax on red-dye diesel, normally sold only to industrial fuel consumers in farming and construction, among others, as well as an $8-billion fuel aid program announced earlier this week by the Department of Agriculture.
The federal government also invoked the Defense Production Act earlier as a means of motivating refiners to ramp up diesel fuel output—by restarting idle plants. The outcome of this specific measure, however, remains uncertain.
“We are talking about reopening every refinery we can,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said earlier this week, as quoted by Reuters. “There are dialogues there, and that’s a tough challenge. I’m not saying all these are going to happen.”
Restarting idled refineries takes up time and it takes quite a bit of money, so it will not be a quick fix for the diesel price conundrum. Even with $1 billion in funding under the Defense Production Act, refinery restarts will not happen overnight.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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