WASHINGTON, March 16, 2012 – Total petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) fell 2.3 percent this February compared with February 2011, pulled down by a decline in residual fuel oil (40.2 percent) and other oil (liquid petrochemical feedstocks, naphtha and gasoil) deliveries. The steep decline in residual fuel demand related to users switching to natural gas. Gasoline deliveries were up 0.9 percent, the first increase in demand since February 2011. Demand for distillate fuel and jet fuel also increased.
“Consumer demand for gasoline is still not strong, but the slight increase is notable,” said API chief economist John Felmy. “It reflects recent improvements in employment growth.”
Supplies for refined products remained ample, with gasoline production of 9.1 million barrels per day setting a record high for February. Distillate fuel production also set a monthly record. Total refinery inputs rose 9.3 percent. Refinery utilization rates were up in February over the same month a year ago.
With refinery production at high levels and domestic demand falling, exports of refined petroleum products increased by 18.1 percent.
Imports of crude oil and refined products fell in February by 0.7 percent to average 10.4 million barrels per day.
Crude oil production rose 2.9 percent in February to average 5.8 million barrels per day. Alaska production was down while North Dakota produced record levels of crude oil at 546 thousand barrels per day in January. The number of oil and gas rigs declined from 2,003 in January to 1,990 in February, according to the latest reports from Baker-Hughes Inc.
In February, crude oil stocks were up 6.2 percent from last year and slightly up from January levels. Gasoline stocks were up from January but down slightly from February 2011.
API represents more than 500 oil and natural gas companies, leaders of a technology-driven industry that supplies most of America’s energy, supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers more than $86 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.