Gunvor Can Deliver 13 Million Gallons Of Gasoline To U.S., But There's Catch

Commodity trading giant Gunvor wants to deliver 13 million gallons of gasoline to the United States, but there’s a catch: they need a Jones Act waiver to do it, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Gunvor SA—an independent commodity trader, and a large one at that—has asked the United States for a waiver to the Act, which states that any blending onboard a vessel in a foreign port should not result in a new and different product. But Gunvor blended the gasoline blendstocks on the BW Egret in Europe.

The Geneva-based Gunvor said that if it receives the waiver, it is prepared to deliver the gasoline to the United States within the next day or two.

The gasoline crunch in the United States has pushed the Biden Administration to look for options to decrease the cost of gasoline to Americans at the pump. One of those options the President proposed on Wednesday: axing the federal gas tax for the next three months. The call on Congress to institute a federal gas tax holiday was met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm by even members of the President’s own party, as those opposed to the measure cited concerns with the depletion of the highway trust fund and whether consumers would really be the beneficiary of the decrease in price at the pump.

U.S. drivers are facing the highest gasoline prices on record for Independence Day—although road trip demand in the U.S. doesn’t appear to be abating. The cost for the average gallon of gasoline in the United States is set to be $4.85 per gallon this holiday.

The Jones Act also prohibits any vessels other than those that are U.S.-flagged, built, and crewed to transport fuel between two U.S. ports. Some have argued that lifting the Jones Act—or waiving it temporarily—would ease prices at the pump.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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