(NewsDakota.com/NAFB) – The Energy Information Administration says ethanol production dropped below an average of a million barrels a day during the week ending on March 17.

That’s the first time production dropped below that mark in over two months. Output totaled 997,000 barrels a day, on average. That’s down from 1.04 million barrels a day during the prior week and the lowest since the seven days ending on January 6.

The country’s largest-producing region is the Midwest, which saw production drop to 954,000 barrels a day from 966,000 the previous week. That’s also the lowest since early January.

Gulf Coast production dropped an average of 8,000 barrels to 24,000 barrels per day. East Coast and West Coast production totals were the only ones higher than the prior week, with each rising about 1,000 barrels to an average of 11,000 and 5,000 barrels a day, respectively. Stockpiles averaged about 26.188 million barrels a day.