13-08-08 US consumers continued to cut back on gasoline purchases in the first six months of 2008, reducing overall demand for oil products to its lowest level in five years, a trade group said.
Gasoline deliveries fell 1.7 % through the end of June compared to the first six months of 2007, the first significant decline in 17 years, the American Petroleum Institute said. Oil product deliveries were down 3 % compared to the year-ago period.

"At 20.08 mm barrels of oil per day, total demand was the lowest in five years," API statistics manager Ron Planting said. "Higher pump prices and a slowing economy were undoubtedly factors."
Demand for gasoline fell 2 % in the second quarter and overall oil product demand was down 1.8 %. The trade group said part of the decline could be attributed to a 2.1 % increase in the demand for distillates, which include diesel fuel and home heating oil.

Domestic refiners produced an average of 4.23 mm barrels of distillates, a record for any six-month period, API said. Oil imports were less than 13 mm bpd, the lowest first-half level since 2003.
Crude oil inventories totalled 301 mm barrels at the end of June, down 54 mm barrels from the same period of 2007 and the lowest first-half level since 2003. US crude oil production fell by 2.2 % for the first half of 2008 compared with 2007.