STRATEGIC US ENERGY MARKET INSIGHTS: A DATA-DRIVEN ANALYSIS OF U.S. FUEL CONSUMPTION, PRICING TRENDS, AND THE RISE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Abstract

This project explores the evolving landscape of the U.S. energy market with a focus on identifying strategic growth opportunities within the fuel distribution sector. Due to the limited availability of proprietary or company-specific data and the fragmented nature
of regional market operations, a comprehensive analysis based solely on internal business metrics was not feasible. As a result, the study relied extensively on publicly accessible datasets from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), covering the period from 1983 through September 2024. While these datasets offered significant historical breadth, they also posed challenges such as missing values, inconsistent formatting, and incomplete time series, requiring substantial preprocessing and data transformation using Microsoft Excel. Following the data cleaning process, Python was employed to conduct sector-wise analytics and generate time-series forecasts for the years 2025 and 2026. To enhance interpretability and support insight communication, Tableau was used to create a series of interactive and static visualizations. These visualizations illustrated energy consumption and pricing patterns across key sectors, including residential, commercial, industrial, and transportation. One of the study’s central observations was the consistent decline in gasoline and oil consumption in recent years. However, the precise drivers behind these trends could not be fully isolated, as the dataset lacked essential variables such as inflation adjustments, technological innovation indicators, and energy efficiency metrics. This limitation restricted the analysis from reaching definitive conclusions on behavioral or macroeconomic influences. Nevertheless, the study delivered key insights such as the dominant role of the transportation sector in oil consumption, the observable impact of electric vehicle (EV) adoption on traditional fuel demand, and region-specific pricing fluctuations. These findings support strategic initiatives such as expanding infrastructure investment into alternative fuel options, aligning pricing strategies with seasonal demand cycles, and focusing on high-consumption geographic markets. Although constrained by data scope and granularity, the project offers a robust, data-driven perspective on contemporary U.S. energy market dynamics and informs strategic decision-making in an industry facing structural transition.