Preface.

The Petroleum Supply Monthly (PSM) is one of a family of four petroleum supply publications produced by the Petroleum Division within the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reflecting different levels of data timeliness and completeness. The other publications are the Weekly Petroleum Status

Data presented in the PSM describe the supply and disposition of petroleum products in the United States and major U.S. geographic regions. The data series describe production, imports and exports, inter-Petroleum Administration for Defense (PAD) District movements, and inventories by the primary suppliers of petroleum products in the United States (50 States and the District of Columbia). The reporting universe includes those petroleum sectors in primary supply. Included are: petroleum refiners, motor gasoline blenders, operators of natural gas processing plants and fractionators, inter-PAD transporters, importers, and major inventory holders of petroleum products and crude oil. When aggregated, the data reported by these sectors approximately represent the consumption of petroleum products in the United States.

Data presented in the PSM are divided into two sections: Summary Statistics and Detailed Statistics.

Summary Statistics

The tables and figures in the Summary Statistics section of the PSM present a time series of selected petroleum data on a U.S. level. Most time series include preliminary estimates for one month based on the Weekly Petroleum Supply Reporting System; statistics based on the most recent data from the Monthly Petroleum Supply Reporting System (MPSRS); and statistics published in prior issues of the PSM and PSA.

Detailed Statistics

The Detailed Statistics tables of the PSM present statistics for the most current month available as well as year-to-date. In most cases, the statistics are presented for several geographic areas--the United States (50 States and the District of Columbia), five PAD Districts, and 12 Refining Districts. At the U.S. and PAD District level, the total volume and the daily rate of activities are presented. The statistics are developed from monthly survey forms submitted by respondents to the EIA and from data provided from other sources.

Appendices

Four appendices are provided to assist in understanding and interpreting the data presented in this publication:

* Appendix A (District Descriptions and Maps)--Geographic aggregations of the 50 States and the District of Columbia into Refining Districts which make up the PAD Districts.

* Appendix B (Detailed Statistics Explanatory Notes)--Information describing data collection, sources, estimation methodology, data quality control procedures, modifications to reporting requirements and interpretation of tables.

* Appendix C (Impact of Resubmissions or Major Series)--Information on revisions to published statistics caused by resubmission of respondent survey forms.

* Appendix D (EIA-819M, Monthly Oxygenate Telephone Report)--Preliminary information on production and stocks of fuel ethanol and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) by PAD District. Data are collected from a sample of respondents reporting on the MPSRS surveys. Data are also published in the WPSR and are available electronically approximately 15 working days after the end of the month.

* Appendix E (Northeast Heating Oil Reserve)--Contains volumes of heating oil held in terminals by the government as a reserve to reduce the risks of home heating oil shortages.

Industry terminology and product definitions are listed alphabetically in the Glossary. Final statistics for the data series published in the PSM, as well as additional data from the biennial refinery and oxygenate capacity surveys are published in the PSA. The PSA is published approximately five months after the end of the report year.