(NAFB) – The Energy Information Administration says ethanol production plunged to its lowest level in four months during the week ending February 4.

Production dropped under one million barrels a day, finishing the week with an average of 994,000 barrels. That’s down from 1.041 million barrels a day during the previous week and the lowest level since the week ending on October 1, 2021.

The nation’s largest-producing region is the Midwest, where output dropped to an average of 939,000 barrels a day from the 981,000 during the prior week. That’s the lowest production level in the Midwest since last October. Gulf Coast production declined by 20,000 barrels a day, while the Rocky Mountain region stayed steady at 15,000 barrels a day.

The East Coast region was the only one to increase, averaging 12,000 barrels a day, up from 11,000 the previous week. Ethanol inventories during the week ending on February 4 declined to 24.79 million barrels.