Movements in refinery yields

Refinery yields have been impacted by the changing crude slate processed in the U.S. as well as some degree of optionality available to refineries in choosing which conversion processes to give primacy to given the prevailing economics posed by relative prices of refined products. These prices, in turn, have increasingly reflected marginally stronger demand domestically for diesel and jet fuel relative to gasoline and stronger demand in global markets for exports of middle distillate.

As a response to these economic incentives, U.S. refineries continue to achieve diesel yield well above those of the traditional 3:2:1 spread used as a shorthand for refinery margins. In 2019, diesel yield in the U.S. averaged 29.7%, highest ever in EIA’s data series, which dates b