API: US oil product demand reached highest January level since 2008
US oil product demand rose 1.5% year-to-year to an average 19.2 million b/d in January, its highest level for the month since 2008, the American Petroleum Institute reported. Gasoline demand growth was strongest, reaching a 6-year January peak of 8.7 million b/d, 6.3% more than in January 2014, API said in its latest Monthly Statistical Report.
“Demand for crude and most refined products remained up from where it was a year ago,” API Chief Economist John C. Felmy said. “We also saw continued strength in production of oil and natural gas. While rig counts have dropped, an impact on production was not felt.”
Crude oil and condensate production climbed 15.4% year-to-year to an average 9.2 million b/d, while natural gas liquids production surged 18.7% to 3.1 million b/d during the same period, API said. Crude imports, excluding purchases for the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, of nearly 7.5 million b/d were 1.5% lower than January 2014’s average, although imports from Canada rose 0.1% year-to-year.
Downstream, input to refineries’ crude oil and distillation units rose 1.9% from a year earlier to 15.9 million b/d as gasoline production rose 4.3%, jet kerosene production increased 5%, and distillate fuel production rose 5.3%. Operable capacity slipped 0.7% as utilization rates grew to 89.5% from 87.2%.
Product exports climbed 8.1% from a year earlier to an average 4.3 million b/d. Product imports rose 15.8% during the same period to 1.9 million b/d, with the strongest growth in gasoline and blending components which jumped 30.1% to 626,000 b/d.
Crude oil inventories, excluding SPR stocks, at the end of January totaled 412.6 million bbl, up 7.6% from Dec. 31, 2014, and 13.4% from a year earlier. Gasoline stocks totaled 233.6 million bbl, 2.1% more than at the end of December but 0.9% less than at the end of January 2014, API said. Month-end distillate inventories of 130.8 million b/d in January were 0.3% lower month-to-month and 14.2% higher year-to-year, it said.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].
Nick Snow
NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020.
