US Gulf coast waterborne gasoline shipments to the US east coast rose to 13-month highs in August because of ongoing gasoline shortages in the southeast US.
The Gulf coast shipped 228,000 b/d to the US east coast in August, the highest since July 2025, when shipments reached 235,000 b/d to the Atlantic coast, according to Vortexa ship-tracking data. Demand for Gulf coast gasoline has risen since the beginning of the US-Iran war in late February.
Most of the latest shipments reached the southeast US, with roughly 82pc, or 187,000 b/d headed to ports in Florida. This was up by 36pc compared with the same month last year, when 137,000 b/d of Gulf coast gasoline cargoes landed in Florida.
Southeast states depend heavily on the Colonial Pipeline system for refined product supply produced mostly in Texas and Louisiana. But Florida, which constitutes the third-largest US fuel market, is largely reliant on waterborne deliveries.
In 2026 so far, 88.4pc of domestic waterborne gasoline shipments from the Gulf coast moved through ports in Florida, with 68.2pc of those cargoes accepted in Port Everglades. A looming gasoline shortage along the US Atlantic coast has supported demand for Gulf coast waterborne shipments, with space on Colonial fully allocated and unable to move additional capacity
Line 1 space prices — the price to access Colonial's gasoline-carrying Line 1 — averaged +0.54¢/USG in August, up from an average of -0.02¢/USG in August 2025. Line 1 starts in Pasadena, Texas, and connects to Line 3 for access to the New York Harbor in Greensboro, North Carolina, though stronger fuel demand in the southeast US has led to more volume taken off the line at or before Greensboro junction.
The central Atlantic coast gasoline market, which includes the New York Harbor and Philadelphia, has faced supply pressures from dwindling regional production and a drop in imports, leaving a stronger arbitrage transporting gasoline into the central Atlantic region via Colonial.
The lower Atlantic region, including Florida, saw gasoline inventories fall by 9pc in the week ended 28 August from a year earlier, based on the latest EIA data. The decline increased demand for barrels, but a 90-day extension of the US Jones Act waiver for fuel deliveries on 10 August provided relief.
The waiver, enacted in late March in response to oil market disruptions caused by the Mideast Gulf war, allows foreign-flagged ships to carry fuel supplies between US ports, expanding available tonnage moving between the Gulf and east coasts.
