EIA: U.S. ethane will grow faster than other petroleum product consumption by 2023

According to the MRCHUB website Moscow on April 12, recently, EIA said on its website that since 2010, the United States has increased ethane consumption every year, and the current consumption of ethane in the United States exceeds aviation fuel or propane
.

According to EIA's March 2022 Petroleum Supply Monthly, ethane consumption increased by 50,000 bpd
in 2021.
According to EIA, by 2023, the consumption of ethane in the United States will increase by another 340,000 barrels per day
.

Since 2010, the annual consumption of ethane in the United States has increased
every year due to the growing demand for ethane as a petrochemical feedstock.
Ethane is mainly used as a petrochemical raw material to produce ethylene, which in turn is used to make plastics and resins
.

In the past two years, domestic ethane consumption has increased
due to the improvement of ethylene cracking capacity.
In contrast, consumption of most other petroleum products has decreased over the past two years due to reduced
travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

U.
S.
ethane consumption is still growing
in 2021, despite a winter storm in the U.
S.
Gulf of Mexico in mid-February, which halted more than one-third of U.
S.
ethylene cracking capacity.
With approximately 90 percent of U.
S.
ethane consumption concentrated along the Gulf Coast, the storm disruption reduced ethane consumption by 655,000 bpd
in February 2021.
Despite this decline, the increased capacity of the two new ethylene crackers in the second half of 2021 drove the overall growth
in ethane consumption in 2021.

The EIA estimates that the average daily consumption of ethane in the United States will be 2.
1 million barrels in 2022 and 2023, as another ethylene cracking unit recently completed in Monaca, Pennsylvania, is expected to increase ethane feedstock capacity by 96,000 barrels per day, while the existing ethylene cracking unit will operate
at a higher utilization rate.