U.S. REFINERY INSIGHTS: Hopes Fade for Post-Summer Demand Boost
- Delta spread threatens to turn the highways quiet again
- Some workers told to still stay home, masking rules reappear
A tanker truck leaves after being filled with gasoline at a Marathon Petroleum oil refinery in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Photographer: George Frey/BloombergThe spread of the highly contagious delta variant of Covid is threatening to put an early end to the U.S. summer driving season and spark a more precipitous downturn than usual in gasoline demand following the Labor Day holiday in early September.
Refiners, recovering from the demand destruction that followed the rise of the pandemic in March 2020, have enjoyed weeks of growth as states reopened for business and pleasure, social distancing rules relaxed and people hit the road on vacation. Gasoline demand reached a record high of more than 10 million barrels a day in early July before falling, then recovering to a robust 9.78 million barrels a day in the week ended July 30.