15-05-08 US oil demand in April, as measured by deliveries of all petroleum products, rose a modest 0.2 % over year-ago levels, the first time this year monthly demand averaged higher than the corresponding month in 2007, according to API's Monthly Statistical Report. But year-to-date oil demand continues to lag behind 2007 levels.
US oil deliveries from January until April 2008 averaged 20.2 mm bpd, 2.4 % below the first four months of 2007. Despite rising prices, gasoline, distillate and residual fuel oil deliveries registered modest year-on-year increases in April while jet fuel demand posted another year-to-year decline.

"We have still seen declines for the year-to-date across all major products," said Ron Planting, manager, information and analysis, for API. "This is one of the reasons petroleum imports have been running nearly 4 % lower than a year ago."
US gasoline and distillate production continued its record-breaking pace in April as gasoline output averaged 8.9 mm bpd, up nearly 1 % from April 2007. Production of distillate, mostly heating oil and diesel fuel, averaged 4.2 mm barrels daily, or 1.7 % above year-ago levels. Refinery crude oil inputs averaged 15.15 mm bpd in April, up from March levels of 14.87 mm bpd. US refiners used 86.7 % of their operable capacity in April, down from year-ago levels of 88.2 %.

The US imported 13.18 mm bpd of crude oil and refined products in April, down more than 5 % from April 2007. Total crude imports averaged 9.81 mm bpd and refined products imports averaged 3.37 mm bpd.
Domestic crude oil production averaged 5.07 mm bpd in April, down 1.7 % from a year ago. It was the fifth monthly year-to-year decline in a row. Year-to-date production is running some 2.9 % below the same period a year-ago.

In April, crude oil inventories rose more than 7 mm barrels from end-March levels, putting them 1 % below the five-year historical average. Gasoline inventories fell from end-March levels to 212 mm barrels but remained 7.5 % higher than year-ago levelsand 6 mm barrels above their recent five-year average.
Distillate inventories ended April 3 mm barrels below end-March levels but 1.5 % above the five-year average.