API: US petroleum demand up in June, second quarter

Total US petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, rose 1.5% in June vs. a year ago to average just above 19 million b/d, according to the American Petroleum Institute’s most recent Monthly Statistics Report. For the second quarter, petroleum demand increased 1.5% compared with the same period last year.

“A wide range of measures show continued strength in petroleum demand and domestic supply last month, with imports around 20-year lows,” said API Chief Economist John Felmy. “Increased US production in recent years has provided an almost barrel-for-barrel counterweight to various disruptions in global supply from overseas.”

Gasoline demand last month gained 4% from June 2013 to average 9.3 million b/d while distillate deliveries increased by 3% to average 3.8 million b/d.

Jet fuel demand also increased by 8.4% over the same period, while demand for “other oils” fell by 5.5%. Residual fuel deliveries fell by 10.9%, marking the lowest June level on record.

According to API’s report, crude oil production in June rose by 15.6% from the level of the previous year to just above 8.3 million b/d, the highest June output in 28 years. Natural gas liquids production gained 17.6% over the same period to set a record output level of over 2.9 million b/d.

According to the latest reports from Baker Hughes Inc., the number of oil and gas rigs in the US in June was 1,861, the highest count since August 2012. This compares with May’s count of 1,859 and June 2013’s count of 1,761.

Total oil imports in June decreased 5.7% from the prior year to average 9.2 million b/d, the lowest level for the month since 1993. Crude oil and refined product imports for the month fell 2.6% and 17.5% from a year ago, respectively, averaging 7.5 million b/d and 1.7 million b/d.

Meanwhile, exports of refined petroleum products in June rose 8.3% from last year, averaging nearly 3.8 million b/d.

Gasoline production last month increased 7.6% from the prior year to 10.1 million b/d, a new record for June and the second highest output level ever recorded. Production of distillate fuel grew 2.5% from last year to set a June record of 4.9 million b/d. “Year to date production was also at record highs for both gasoline and distillate,” API said.

Refinery gross inputs in June were down 2.5% from the prior year to 15.9 million b/d. The refinery capacity utilization rate averaged 88.8% in June, down 0.9 percentage points from May and 2.9 percentage points from the same period last year. API’s latest refinery operable capacity was 17.934 million b/d.

According to API’s data, crude oil stocks gained 1.4% from June 2013 to 380.8 million bbl—the second highest inventory level for the month since 1990. Stocks of motor gasoline fell 4.4% from last year to 215.1 million bbl. Stocks of distillate, jet fuel and “other oils” were also all down from their levels of the previous year.