Propane helps US set mark for petroleum product exports

Propane was the most-exported U.S. petroleum product in the first half of 2023, averaging 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and continuing a trend that began in 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reports. U.S. propane exports have been driving increases in U.S. petroleum product exports for the past four years.

U.S. propane and other hydrocarbon gas liquid (HGL) exports to Asia have grown rapidly in recent years. Propane exports to destinations in Europe decreased compared with the first half of 2022, as did propane exports to destinations in Central America and South America.

U.S. propane and other HGL exports in the first half of 2023 drove the overall increase in U.S. petroleum product exports to a record level. Petroleum product exports totaled nearly 6 million bpd in the first half of 2023, 2 percent more than during the same period in 2022. The first half of 2023 saw the most U.S. petroleum product exports during the first six months of any year in EIA’s Petroleum Supply Monthly data, which date back to 1981.

Exports of other major petroleum products such as motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil and jet fuel all decreased compared with the first half of 2022.

EIA says the increasing competitiveness and efficiency of production at U.S. refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast and increasing HGL production associated with rising U.S. upstream oil and natural gas production have led to increases in U.S. petroleum product exports.

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