Transitioning to Summer Grade Fuel
Believe it or not, spring is just around the corner – and that means it’s time to start thinking ahead to summer. As we get ready for warmer months, the fuel industry prepares for a key change: switching from winter-grade to summer-grade gasoline.
If you caught our June 2024 article, "Kickoff to Summer Driving Season", you might remember the RVP (Reid Vapor Pressure) blend-down phase. During this period, refiners, pipelines, terminals, and suppliers work to phase out winter-grade gasoline (which has a higher RVP) in favor of summer-grade fuel (with lower RVP) to meet EPA requirements by May 1. This shift helps ensure gasoline performs safely and efficiently in warmer temperatures, reducing emissions and maintaining fuel quality.
Summer gasoline must meet different performance and environmental specifications than fuel sold during the winter, fall, and spring. The Clean Air Act requires summer gasoline to be less volatile, meaning it’s less prone to vaporize when temperatures reach their summer highs. This is important for mitigating evaporative emissions from cars and trucks and other precursors to smog.
Lower volatility is also important for ensuring optimal engine performance when ambient temperatures are high. US EPA defines April to June as the “transition season”, but the requirement for summer gasoline at the retailer starts on June 1 and ends on September 15.
The annual blend down of RVP gasoline causes terminal operators to deplete or minimize inventory levels to meet the EPA regulated RVP requirements by May 1. Subsequently, retailers can then reach these same requirements by June 1. This means that refiners need to start making summer blends as early as mid-February, following a gradual RVP blend down schedule. Pipeline and terminal operators usually establish this, ensuring a safe transition to summer grade gasoline.
This process can be rather complicated as everyone in the supply chain is trying to ensure regulatory compliance, while not creating supply shortages leading into the high demand period for gasoline (summer driving season). It is not uncommon for terminal supplies to be relatively low post the transition season, potentially leading to short-term supply disruptions.
To add to the complexity this year, 8 states (see 8-states highlighted above) have opted out of the EPA’s #1 waiver so that they could offer year around sales of E-15 gasoline blends. For this to happen, it will require for these states to have 7.8# RVP or lower conventional gasoline from June 1 to September 15 versus the more traditional 9.0 # RVP conventional gasoline.
In most cases, this means that refiners will need to produce 2 summer grades of gasoline, and pipelines will need to deliver 2 grades of gasoline through and around these states so that terminal operators will have what they need to blend to EPA standards before May 1. This being the first year, it could be a little complicated, and hard to know how this will impact supply availabilities through the transition and during the summer driving season (EPA regulated period).
Many factors are at play in delivering that final gallon of gasoline to the terminal and eventually to the retail fuel pump. Ensuring compliant gasoline products reach your retail sites and, ultimately, the end consumer year-round requires a great deal of complexity and behind-the-scenes effort.
Although this is an annual process for the industry, GROWMARK Energy never takes it for granted. The energy team works diligently with our supply partners and pipeline operators, carefully planning and scheduling shipments while managing inventories, so that our refined fuel terminals remain complaint by May 1 – every year.