US regional oil tightness ·EIA week ending September 4, 2026
US fuel stocks are not one number. The sharpest regional stress is East Coast distillate, in the lowest tenth of readings since 2015 and -11.82M bbl (-35%) against its same-week five-year average (1st percentile of the modern era, 2015-present). The deepest cushion is Gulf Coast jet fuel, in the upper third of readings since 2015.
Gasoline by district
week ending September 4, 2026US total 206.9M bbl · in the lowest tenth of readings since 2015 · 5% below its five-year norm for this week
| District | Stocks | vs 5-yr same week | Since 2015 | WoW | YoY | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Midwest (PADD 2) | 43.2M bbl | -2.14M bbl (-5%) | 1st pctile | -0.14M | -2.31M | Tight |
| Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) | 6.3M bbl | -0.22M bbl (-3%) | 7th pctile | -0.02M | -0.14M | Tight |
| East Coast (PADD 1) | 53.0M bbl | -3.85M bbl (-7%) | 8th pctile | +0.43M | -2.70M | Tight |
| Gulf Coast (PADD 3) | 77.3M bbl | -3.77M bbl (-5%) | 10th pctile | +1.12M | -4.61M | Tight |
| West Coast (PADD 5) | 27.1M bbl | -1.70M bbl (-6%) | 11th pctile | -0.13M | -3.30M | Lean |
Distillate by district
week ending September 4, 2026US total 106.3M bbl · in the lowest tenth of readings since 2015 · 14% below its five-year norm for this week
EIA distillate covers diesel and heating oil together; a tight district is a tight distillate pool, not necessarily a diesel shortage alone.
| District | Stocks | vs 5-yr same week | Since 2015 | WoW | YoY | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Coast (PADD 1) | 21.7M bbl | -11.82M bbl (-35%) | 1st pctile | +2.38M | -8.55M | Tight |
| West Coast (PADD 5) | 10.1M bbl | -1.69M bbl (-14%) | 1st pctile | +0.17M | -2.08M | Tight |
| Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) | 3.5M bbl | -0.09M bbl (-2%) | 20th pctile | +0.01M | +0.07M | Lean |
| Midwest (PADD 2) | 28.5M bbl | -2.86M bbl (-9%) | 31st pctile | -0.32M | -2.15M | Normal |
| Gulf Coast (PADD 3) | 42.5M bbl | -0.49M bbl (-1%) | 45th pctile | -0.16M | -1.66M | Normal |
Jet fuel by district
week ending September 4, 2026US total 46.0M bbl · in the top tenth of readings since 2015 · 8% above its five-year norm for this week
| District | Stocks | vs 5-yr same week | Since 2015 | WoW | YoY | Read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| East Coast (PADD 1) | 10.7M bbl | +0.10M bbl (+1%) | 72nd pctile | -0.54M | +0.36M | High |
| Rocky Mountain (PADD 4) | 0.8M bbl | -0.01M bbl (-1%) | 73rd pctile | +0.06M | -0.06M | High |
| West Coast (PADD 5) | 11.2M bbl | +1.11M bbl (+11%) | 88th pctile | -0.18M | -0.11M | High |
| Midwest (PADD 2) | 7.8M bbl | +0.05M bbl (+1%) | 89th pctile | -0.45M | +0.20M | High |
| Gulf Coast (PADD 3) | 15.6M bbl | +2.00M bbl (+15%) | 89th pctile | +1.28M | +2.37M | High |
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About this comparison
The national gasoline, distillate, and jet totals each hide five very different regional balances. This page ranks the EIA's PADD districts within each product so the stressed region and the comfortable one are visible side by side, on the same reporting week.
Ranking: within each product, districts sort by the post-2015 percentile of their current stocks (tightest first), with the same-week five-year deviation as the tiebreak. Both fields are shown in the table. Low stock and fast draw are different conditions: the percentile measures the level, the WoW column shows the current pace.
Weekly regional ending stocks of finished motor gasoline, distillate fuel oil, and kerosene-type jet fuel by PADD, in millions of barrels. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Updated weekly.
Regional oil inventories: common questions
- What is a PADD?
- PADDs are the five Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts the EIA uses to report regional petroleum data: East Coast (1), Midwest (2), Gulf Coast (3), Rocky Mountain (4), and West Coast (5). They date to World War II fuel rationing and remain the standard regional cut of US fuel statistics.
- Why do regional fuel inventories diverge from the national total?
- Fuel moves on fixed infrastructure. The Gulf Coast refines far more than it burns and pipelines the surplus east and north, the East Coast depends on those pipelines and on imports, and the West Coast has no pipeline connection to the rest of the country at all. A national total can sit at a normal level while one district runs near record lows.
More questions
- Is a tight distillate number the same as a diesel shortage?
- Not exactly. EIA distillate stocks cover diesel and heating oil together, so a low distillate reading means the combined pool is thin. It usually moves with diesel, but the series does not separate the two, and this page does not claim it does.
- How is the tightness ranking computed?
- Deterministically, from disclosed fields only: each district's current stocks are ranked against its own post-2015 history, compared with its same-calendar-week five-year average, and shown with week-over-week and year-over-year changes. No model or editorial judgment enters the ranking, and every row uses the same reporting week.
- How fresh is this comparison?
- The EIA publishes the underlying regional series every Wednesday around 10:30 a.m. Eastern for the prior Friday's week. This page recomputes from those series and shows the reporting week beside every table.