Where does US export Diesel to? Where does it get the diesel from?

Where the diesel goes

Diesel, technically called distillate fuel oil, is the largest transportation fuel export by volume from the United States and the third-largest petroleum export overall, trailing only crude oil and propane.

Mexico is the single biggest customer, taking roughly 220,000 barrels per day, about 17% of total U.S. distillate exports. Chile is second, and exports there have been growing. Brazil is third, taking around 103,000 barrels per day, though that is well below where it was before the war in Ukraine reshuffled global fuel trade.

Europe has become a much bigger piece of the picture in recent years. After the EU banned Russian distillate imports, many Brazilian buyers began sourcing discounted Russian fuel instead, while European buyers turned to the United States to replace what Russia had been supplying. Major European hubs, particularly the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, now import significantly more U.S. distillate, with the Netherlands taking 103,000 barrels per day and the UK 81,000 barrels per day in 2024. Those are dramatic jumps: in 2021, the Netherlands imported just 12,000 barrels per day from the U.S., and the UK only 23,000.

Where the diesel comes from

Most of the diesel fuel consumed, and exported, by the United States is produced in U.S. oil refineries. The reason the U.S. ends up with a surplus to export at all comes down to refinery chemistry: the United States produces more diesel than it consumes, often by over one million barrels per day, because diesel is produced alongside gasoline in the refining process and American demand leans heavily toward gasoline.

Domestic crude comes chiefly from Texas, North Dakota, and Alaska. The Permian Basin in Texas is the most prolific, producing millions of barrels daily, while North Dakota's Bakken Formation and Alaska's North Slope add substantial volumes.

Here is the twist that explains why the U.S. still imports crude even while exporting diesel: most American production is light, sweet crude, but many U.S. refineries were built to process heavier, sour crude, the kind better suited to making diesel and jet fuel. The shale boom flooded the system with light crude those refineries were not fully configured to absorb. So American refiners import heavier crude to run through their machinery. Canada dominates as the supplier, providing around 60% of U.S. crude imports, while Mexico accounts for roughly 8 to 10%, with Gulf Coast refineries receiving heavier grades specifically suited to their equipment.

Once refined, major pipelines such as the Colonial Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline move diesel from refineries to regional distribution hubs across the country, and from there it flows to export terminals, primarily along the Gulf Coast, and onto tankers headed for Latin America and Europe.