“Refiners like Reliance normally send their material where they can get the highest price,” KBC’s Ul-Haq said. “The U.S is a destination for these refiners because it’s the largest gasoline consumer in the world.”

India’s supplies of gasoline blendstocks to the U.S. rose more than tenfold to an average 44,000 barrels a day in the period 2010 to 2015, compared with the previous 10 years, EIA data show. American imports of the components from Singapore surged to about 1.5 million barrels last year from 150,000 barrels in 2014, according to the data.

Shale Boom

The U.S. oil boom was driven by a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of shale formations including the Eagle Ford and Permian in Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota. That boosted the country’s crude production to 9.6 million barrels a day last year, the highest level in more than three decades, from as low as 3.8 million barrels in September 2008, EIA data show.

The jump in output has meant the nation’s need for crude from overseas has dropped, while the quality mismatch of the gasoline produced has boosted dependence on foreign additives. Those purchases have averaged 635,000 barrels a day over the past 6 years, 25 percent higher than shipments over the previous decade, according to government data.

“Once you get addicted to high-octane stuff, then you want to keep using it,” KBC’s Ul-Haq said. “People want to put a tiger in the tank instead of lower-octane stuff.”
 

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