Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C) diesel price

PADD 1C runs from Virginia through the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida, and of the three East Coast subregions it sits closest to the Gulf Coast in both geography and price. The Colonial and Plantation pipelines that carry refined product north from Gulf refineries end here, which usually keeps Lower Atlantic prices nearer the Gulf Coast number than New England or Central Atlantic manage, though still a bit above it once the cost of the pipeline haul is added.

Florida breaks that pattern: the peninsula sits past where those pipelines reach, so its stations depend on marine deliveries into Florida's own ports, a smaller-scale version of New England's situation. Hurricane season is the standout risk, for Gulf refining and for Florida's marine supply alike.

This is the sub-district where the pipeline economics are easiest to see. Colonial and Plantation both originate on the Gulf Coast and run northeast, so a Lower Atlantic terminal in Georgia or the Carolinas is buying Gulf fuel plus a few hundred miles of tariff. The further along the line a terminal sits, the more of that haul is in the price, which is why the Carolinas typically read above Georgia and Georgia above the Gulf itself. What are PADDs explains the district boundaries that put all of them in the same reported number.

Florida is a separate market inside the same district. The pipelines stop short of the peninsula, so Tampa, Port Everglades and Jacksonville take waterborne cargoes and distribute by truck from there. That gives Florida a cost structure closer to New England's than to Georgia's, and it means the state's price can move on a shipping event while the rest of PADD 1C sits still. The reported sub-district average blends the two.

Hurricane season is the risk that dominates the calendar here, and it works on both ends at once. A storm in the Gulf can shut in the refineries and the pipeline origin the Carolinas and Georgia depend on; a storm on the Atlantic side can close the Florida ports the peninsula depends on. Demand also spikes ahead of a landfall as fleets and households top off, which is why the local price sometimes moves before the supply disruption does.

The Lower Atlantic vs. the US average page charts that gap over time.