Oil demand lowest in 10 years

API:

U.S. petroleum deliveries (a measure of demand) plummeted nearly six percent for the first half of 2009, to the lowest level for the January-to-June period in more than a decade, as the sluggish economy continued to stifle oil consumption.

Petroleum deliveries fell to 18.75 million barrels per day, down nearly 10 percent from the peak of 20.75 million barrels per day reached in first-half 2005, according to API’s Monthly Statistical Report.

“The economic slowdown has had a particularly large impact on diesel and on jet fuel, though gasoline remains depressed, as well,” said API Statistics Manager Ron Planting.

First-half jet fuel deliveries fell nearly 13 percent from a year ago as a result of reduced air travel, while distillate fuel oil deliveries dropped 8.6 percent on sluggish demand for freight transportation. Residual fuel oil deliveries fell by 9.1 percent, reflecting both fuel substitutions and the economic slowdown. First-half gasoline deliveries slipped less than 1 percent from already-depressed levels of a year ago, reaching their lowest level for the period since 2003.

Following two consecutive annual declines in 2007 and 2008, crude oil and product imports dipped by 7.6 percent in 2009’s first half due to slumping demand and increased domestic supplies.

...

I have noticed the the price of diesel is back below the price of regular gas. That has to be good news for the truckers, assuming they have deliveries to make. The falling demand suggests otherwise.

This is happening at a time when US production is at its highest level in four years. The North Dakota production is looking bigger and bigger. If the Democrats would quit strangling offshore and Alaska production, our imports could be reduced even more.