The Energy Department said ethanol production fell by a record-matching 5.2 percent, to 956,000 barrels a day last week, a far larger decline than expected by traders, said Agrimoney. In its previous report, the Energy Information Administration said ethanol output was a record 1.08 million barrels. The EIA report came a day after the EPA raised the ethanol mandate for 2015 and 2016 from the levels it proposed in May. There was concern that financial troubles at Abengoa, a Spanish energy company with six U.S. ethanol plants, might have affected the weekly production totals, said Agrimoney, but analysts said it was more likely the sharp decline was a result of the vagaries in collecting data from producers.