Ethanol tank. Photo credit: Joanna Schroeder

This week marked new data being compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) including data on ethanol and biodiesel being transported by railroads. With this addition, EIA now reports on monthly rail movements for crude oil, ethanol and biodiesel.

According to EIA, adding movements of ethanol and biodiesel by rail to existing movements between Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADDs) by pipelines, tankers, and barges provides more complete data on inter-PADD movements of biofuels. In addition, incorporating ethanol and biodiesel movements into regional volumetric balances also improves supply estimates for finished motor gasoline and distillate fuel oil.

The first reportable data was the March report that included both January data and also included monthly rail movements of ethanol and biodiesel back to January 2014.