What Is a PADD?
A PADD, or Petroleum Administration for Defense District, is one of the five districts into which the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) groups the 50 states and the District of Columbia. PADD 1 is split further into three subdistricts: 1A, 1B and 1C. Two more districts, PADD 6 and PADD 7, cover US territories and are not included in EIA's US totals.
When a price report or a supply story says “the Gulf Coast” or “PADD 3”, this is the map it means. EIA uses the districts to report regional petroleum supply and movements, and it publishes its weekly retail gasoline and diesel prices by PADD.
The five districts
EIA's glossary lists the states in each district:
| District | Region | States |
|---|---|---|
| PADD 1A | New England | Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont |
| PADD 1B | Central Atlantic | Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania |
| PADD 1C | Lower Atlantic | Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia |
| PADD 2 | Midwest | Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin |
| PADD 3 | Gulf Coast | Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas |
| PADD 4 | Rocky Mountain | Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming |
| PADD 5 | West Coast | Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Washington |
PADD 1A, 1B and 1C together make up PADD 1, the East Coast. PADD 6 is Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands; PADD 7 is Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Where PADDs came from
The districts date from World War II. The Petroleum Administration for War, set up by an executive order in 1942, used five districts to ration gasoline. That agency was abolished in 1946, but the Defense Production Act of 1950 created the Petroleum Administration for Defense, which used the same five districts under their present name. EIA still reports by them.
Reading a PADD price
EIA's Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update publishes on-highway diesel and regular gasoline prices every week for the US, for each PADD, for subdistricts 1A, 1B and 1C, and for California and the West Coast less California. EIA notes that these prices include all taxes.
That makes a PADD diesel price a retail figure for a whole district. A rack price is something else: the wholesale price one supplier posts for one product at one terminal. A PADD price tells you where a region sits against the rest of the country; it is not a price anyone will load a truck at.
Sources
- EIA Today in Energy: PADD regions: the five districts, the PADD 1 subdistricts, and their history from 1942 and the Defense Production Act of 1950
- EIA glossary: Petroleum Administration for Defense District: the states and territories in each PADD, and that PADDs 6 and 7 are not in US totals
- EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update: weekly prices by PADD, noted as including all taxes