What is the difference in product supplied among EIA publications?

We publish our most definitive set of finalized petroleum statistics in the Petroleum Supply Annual. This report is released every August and revises any errors or missing data for the previous calendar year. 

Our Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) provides comprehensive and more timely petroleum statistics. We release the PSM report on the last business day of the month, and it provides statistics for the month two months before. The PSM report derives its data from surveying all companies that produce, import, transport, or hold in storage any petroleum product in the United States. We do not survey exports but instead receive export statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Our Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR) provides even more timely but less comprehensive information than the PSM because the WPSR surveys fewer respondents. Whereas the PSM surveys the entire primary supply chain, the WPSR surveys the largest respondents only, covering around 90% of the latest monthly volume for each supply source. The WPSR product supplied data can experience large week-to-week swings, partially because of sampling errors from surveying only a subset of the PSM respondents and partially because imports or exports can quickly change depending on when cargoes clear U.S. Customs. We recommend data users analyze the four-week moving average of product supplied to better understand underlying trends in U.S. petroleum consumption.

Because calculating product supplied involves several components, each component can be subject to sampling error, measurement error, and timing differences. Sampling errors can occur for each supply or disposition component and can result in differences between the WPSR estimate and the reported product supplied for the month in the PSM. Differences can also arise because we estimate weekly export data for petroleum products using unedited weekly export statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Usually, the WPSR product supplied is within +/-2% of the PSM. Over longer periods, these differences can average closer to 0%.

We rely on PSM and WPSR data for other EIA publications and forecasts. We use the terms petroleum consumption and petroleum product supplied interchangeably in these reports, such as the Monthly Energy Review, Short-Term Energy Outlook, and Annual Energy Outlook, to label the data consistently with other fuel consumption such as natural gas, coal, nuclear, renewables, and electricity.

Absent significant errors, omissions, or natural disasters, we never revise the data published in the WPSR. Historical WPSR estimates of product supplied become less relevant when we publish the PSM because we capture the remaining data that we did not survey in the WPSR. PSM data can serve as a definitive historical benchmark and the WPSR as a near-term estimate of recent history. The unrevised historical WPSR data are still useful, however, particularly for users who wish to understand weekly variability in petroleum market activity among all primary supply chain components.

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