UPDATE: US Revised Aug Oil Use -2.8% vs Year Earlier - EIA

 
   (Updates with detail on other petroleum products) 
    By David Bird 
    Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES 

NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--U.S. oil demand in August fell 2.8% from a year earlier to 18.732 million barrels a day, the lowest level for the month since 1997, revised government data released Thursday show.

Demand was the lowest in any month since May and was 3.1% below the earlier estimate. August was the 25th straight month of year-on-year declines in demand in the world's biggest oil consumer, data from the Energy Information Administration show.

Demand for gasoline, the most widely used petroleum product, averaged 9.25 million barrels a day, up 116,000 barrels a day, or 1.3%, above a year ago. Gasoline demand was 0.5% above the preliminary figure and but down 50,000 barrels a day from July.

Consumption of distillate fuel (diesel and heating oil) dropped 7.5%, or 276,000 barrels a day, from a year earlier, to 3.383 million barrels a day. That was 0.8% below the preliminary estimate and was the lowest in any month since July 2000 and the weakest level in August since 1997.

In August, U.S. benchmark crude oil prices averaged $71.14 a barrel, down 39% from a year earlier. The price paid by refiners for imported crude oil averaged $72.81 a barrel, down 34.5%. The retail price of regular gasoline averaged $2.616 a gallon, down 30.8%, while the price of diesel fuel averaged $2.634 a gallon, down 38.8% from a year ago.

Within the distillate data, demand for ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel averaged 2.885 million barrels a day, down 13% from a year earlier and 1% below the July level. Demand for the fuel was the lowest in August since 2006, reflecting the slowdown in truck and rail traffic due to the weak economy.

August jet fuel demand averaged 1.45 million barrels a day, down 11.5% from a year earlier, and the lowest in the month since 1993. Demand was 5% below the July level, but 3.3% above June jet fuel use.

Demand for heavy residual fuel oil averaged 493,000 barrels a day in August, down 6% from the preliminary figure, and 3.5% below a year ago. Resid demand was the lowest in August on records dating back to 1936, as competition intensifies from natural gas.

Demand for the four core petroleum products - gasoline, distillate, jet fuel and residual fuel - fell 367,000 barrels a day, or 2.5%, from a month earlier, indicating that demand for other products, such as catchall other oils and propane/propylene, dropped by nearly 4% in the month.

  - By David Bird, Dow Jones Newswires, 1-212-416-2141, david.bird@dowjones.com 
 

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 29, 2009 11:59 ET (15:59 GMT)


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