Petroleum consumption in June declined 3 percent from a year ago to 18.691 million barrels per day. Demand was down 2.6 percent for the first half of the year from the same period in 2011.
“A weakening economy requires less fuel, and this by most measures is a weakening economy,” said API chief economist John Felmy. “The fall in demand in June is particularly notable and consistent with other disappointing metrics in the economy, including falling retail sales and contraction in the manufacturing sector.”
Gasoline demand was down 2.5 percent in June at 8.821 million bpd. Consumption of the fuel was down 1 percent for the first six months of the year.
API’s oil demand figure for June is lower than the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s preliminary estimate of consumption at 19.125 million bpd for the month. The EIA issues its revised June demand number at the end of August.
Demand for distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, fell a slight 0.7 percent to 3.876 million bpd in June. Jet fuel consumption climbed 0.7 percent to 1.555 million bpd for the month. Total imports in June accounted for 58.5 percent of U.S. oil demand, down from 60.3 percent a year earlier.
