Terms & Acronyms Used
- BOL – Bill of lading; a document issued by a carrier to acknowledge receipt of cargo, submitted electronically to DTN TABS. The terminal also prints out a paper copy, which the driver keeps in the truck when hauling to the gas station.
- EIA– The U.S. Energy Information Administration; responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating energy information.
- PADD – Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts
- ppm – parts per million
- ProphetX – DTN’s commodity trading software
- Rack – the terminal platform fuel is pumped into fuel trucks for delivery to the merchant
- TABS – DTN’s energy-sector tool for managing product allocation and credit
- Terminal – storage facility for fuel after it leaves the refinery
What is DTN Refined Fuel Demand?
Refined Fuels Demand is a product offered by DTN via API and through ProphetX. Each day the tool gathers liquid fuels transaction data that is observed by DTN and summarizes the product volumes by type for each Rack City, Terminal, PADD and US. The data is released to the API each morning around 3AM Central time.
Where does the DTN Refined Fuel Demand come from for ProphetX?
The Energy division at DTN produces and provides this data to ProphetX.
Can I get a trial of this data?
Yes, we do offer a trial for DTN Refined Fuel Demand, although the trial data and history is limited to a select list of cities (Los Angeles, CA; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Hammond, IN; Baltimore, MD; New York, NY; Sinking Springs, PA; Spartanburg, SC; Dallas FT Worth, TX; Houston, TX). Talk to your sales representative about it, or if you’d prefer, we can put in the request to add the two-week trial now.
Why is there missing data?
Demand data reflects the downstream wholesale petroleum transactions processed every day. It’s possible on any given day that a real world event can cause a product or rack to be excluded.
What does the time stamp mean for daily reports run the previous day?
ProphetX uses a generic time stamp of 11:00 a.m. The API feed includes a date but no time element. This generic time is used so the date is not changed due to the various time zone settings utilized by ProphetX.
Who do I contact for questions about DTN Refined Fuel Demand?
Contact ProphetX Support at (800) 532.0136, or email [email protected].
Who do I contact for questions about the Refined Fuel API?
Contact Fuel Suite/Messaging Support, (800)779.5775 or email [email protected].
Where do I find the DTN Refined Fuel Demand in ProphetX?
Using the ProphetX Symbol Search, go to Energy-DTN Rack > DTN Refined Fuel Demand. You can then select from the following:
- PADD Summary Volume
- Rack Volume
What about Historical Data?
Access to historical data from January 1, 2017 is included for trending and analysis.
How many rack locations are reported on?
The rack endpoint has volume data for 305 rack-city locations. Individual terminal data within a city is not available.
Is volume data reported on net or gross gallons?
Some of the Rack Cities DTN covers are smaller. To avoid disclosing proprietary supplier data, we require a minimum of 3 suppliers in a Rack City for actual Net Gallons for that city to be reported. If the number of suppliers is less than 3 on any given day, an ‘average’ is returned. When this occurs, it is noted in the Volume field in ProphetX: 0 = actual volumes, 1 = calculation.
How often is the data updated?
Volume data is aggregated daily from 12:00:00 a.m. to 11:59:99 p.m (US Central time). Local terminal time is calculated at 3:00 a.m. the following day. The time stamp will display 11 a.m. and the previous day’s date in ProphetX.
What countries are included with this service?
Currently, the United States is the only country available.
Do the DTN’s distillate grades match the EIA’s?
All three of DTN’s distillate grades roll up to the EIA’s Distillate Fuel Oil category. From there, DTN’s #1 Diesel and #2 Diesel will map to the EIA’s “15 ppm and under” Sulfur category. DTN’s Heating Oil will map to either EIA’s “Greater than 15 to 500 ppm” or “Greater than 500 ppm” Sulfur categories. However, DTN does not track sulfur content, so it cannot delineate.
What is Coverage Factor?
Coverage Factor is a new addition to the Refined Fuels Demand offering that seeks to normalize the Refined Fuels Demand data across regions and time by identifying the total transactions that occurred in a specified timeframe and comparing that count to the transaction volume DTN directly observed and processed. This data is to be released into the API and ProphetX alongside the RFD data.
How do I receive the Coverage Factor data?
Coverage Factor data will be available through the API and via ProphetX. See the last page of this document for detail.
***Please note that if you are gathering the data over the API the release may break your queries as some exiting data structure is changing.
The emailed Coverage Factor data will be discontinued within 4 weeks after the release of the data via API and to ProphetX.
Will there be a charge for Coverage Factor data?
Coverage Factor data for each PADD and subPADD will be included in the PADD and subPADD subscription. The US total value will be included for US all subscribers. There will be no additional charge for Coverage Factor in either case.
What Coverage Factor values are available?
Coverage factor values are provided daily for each PADD, subPADD, and the US total.
Will DTN release State or Terminal level Coverage Factor values?
No. To speed the product release, we have created Coverage Factor values for the most critical coverage areas, PADD, subPADD, and US. We do not currently have plans to release Coverage Factor for State or Terminal level.
What is the Methodology for Coverage Factor?
For a given geography (US, or PADD): COVERAGE = (# of visible transactions over 7 days) / (# visible transactions over 7 days + # missing transactions over 7 days).
Where # visible transactions is a count of BOLs (the same ones used in RFD to get product/volume) and # missing transactions is the number of inferred transactions based on gaps in the BOL sequence.
COVERAGE_FACTOR = COVERAGE / SECRET_SCALE_FACTOR
where SECRET_SCALE_FACTOR = COVERAGE for the US on 2017-01-01
How is Coverage Factor data used?
- What is the method for comparing diverse regional data such as volume in PADD1 vs. US on a specific day?
- The ratio of PADD1 to US would be (PADD1/padd1_coverage)/(US/US_coverage). To compare, divide each volume by the coverage factor to get scaled values.
- How can I compare Year over Year volumes within the same PADD?
- The calculation is the same for YoY or MoM comparisons within the same PADD, simply divide any volume by its coverage factor.
- How can the Coverage Factor be greater than 1?
- The Coverage Factor is not a simple percentage. It is a representative value linked to DTN’s observed market share percentage for the entire US on Jan. 1, 2017. All coverage factors are divided by this value to mask the actual DTN coverage, but still provide a means of comparing values across time, PADDs or regions.
- I divided the Volume by the Coverage Factor, is the result meaningful?
- Not by itself, because the value is scaled for comparison and is not reflective of actual volume transacted.
- If I’m comparing month to month, how do I use the Coverage Factor?
- Apply the specific coverage factor against its daily volume first. Then sum the volumes and divide the monthly sums to get a percentage result.
Does the Coverage Factor differentiate between Gasoline and Diesel?
No. Coverage Factor is calculated based on count of missing transactions; It does not reflect the individual products that were part of those transactions because DTN does not have access to those transaction details. Coverage Factor is intended to avoid speculation and provide a more complete and consistent market view.
As a ProphetX user for Refined Fuels Demand, how will I get the data?
Coverage Factor data will be made available to current subscribers of PADD level or US level data. The values can be accessed by a standard symbol search under:
- Energy-DTN Rack \ DTN Refined Fuels Demand \ PADD Coverage Factor
- US Coverage Factor = PVL_US.CF
- PADD1 Coverage Factor = PVL_1.CF
- PADD2 Coverage Factor = PVL_2.CF
- PADD3 Coverage Factor = PVL_3.CF
- PADD4 Coverage Factor = PVL_4.CF
- PADD5 Coverage Factor = PVL_5.CF
- PADD1A Coverage Factor = PVL_1A.CF
- PADD1B Coverage Factor = PVL_1B.CF
- PADD1C Coverage Factor = PVL_1C.CF
As a Demand API user for Refined Fuels Demand, how will I receive Coverage Factor data?
Coverage Factor will be added as discreet fields within the API as nine daily distinct values. There will be a singular value for each PADD and PADD1 subPADD, as well as a US value.
Within the API, the data can be accessed in 2 different ways. Coverage Factor data can be retrieved independently via the coverage daily. Coverage Factor is also available within the current PADD level summary data structure.