U.S. refineries are producing a smaller share of gasoline from every barrel of crude oil they process and shifting production efforts toward diesel and jet fuel as soaring margins on those products reshape the economics of American refining.
Gasoline yields averaged below 45% during the first eight months of 2026, falling below the previous five-year low in every month, according to data published Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
That’s a significant departure for a refining industry that typically produces 45 to 50 barrels of gasoline for every 100 barrels of crude processed.
And even though gasoline prices are elevated, diesel and jet fuel are considerably more profitable to produce as global fuel shortages drive refining margins higher.
Distillate fuel oil yields, which include diesel and heating oil, exceeded their five-year average in every month through August. Jet fuel production has undergone an even more pronounced shift.
In March, jet fuel’s share of U.S. refinery output exceeded 12% for the first time on record. It remained at or above that level through August, the latest month for which EIA data is available.
The changes reflect an increasingly strained global refining market.
The Iran war has disrupted Middle Eastern refining operations, while Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries have further restricted supplies of diesel and other petroleum products.
Global refinery crude runs dropped by 4.8 million barrels per day in the second quarter, according to EIA data released earlier this week. Although throughput recovered by 1.8 million bpd in the third quarter, it remained approximately 5% below year-earlier levels.
U.S. refineries, meanwhile, increased crude processing by 500,000 bpd in the second quarter and another 500,000 bpd in the third, helping compensate for lost production elsewhere.
Diesel prices reached their highest nominal levels on record in September.
For U.S. refiners, the opportunity extends beyond processing more crude. The shortage has changed which fuels deliver the greatest returns, encouraging refiners to maximize middle distillates even at the expense of gasoline yields.
The result is a domestic refining system increasingly oriented toward supplying a global market short of diesel and jet fuel.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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