Petroleum demand last month highest for February since 2008
Total petroleum deliveries last month averaged 19.7 million barrels per day (MMbd) the highest levels for February in nine years.
Deliveries moved up 0.1 percent from February 2016 and 2.2 percent from January of this year. Year to date, total petroleum deliveries grew 0.7 percent compared to the same period last year.
“Crude oil production broke the 9 million barrels per day threshold for the first time since March 2016,” Chief Economist Erica Bowman said. “This increase in production combined with more widespread jobs gains is good news for the economy, which appears to be moving in the right direction.”
Total motor gasoline deliveries for February measured 8.9 MMbd, the second highest level since 2008. February’s deliveries increased from the prior month but fell 3.8% compared to February 2016 and also decreased from year to date.
Crude oil production grew 0.7 percent from January, but decreased by 1.3 percent from February 2016 to average just above 9.0 MMbd in February. Natural gas liquids (NGL) production, a co-product of natural gas production, fell 2.7 percent from the prior month, but was up 2.9 percent from the prior year and the prior year to date. NGL production averaged 3.4 MMbd in February.
U.S. total petroleum imports in February averaged nearly 10.4 MMbd, the highest February levels in five years. This represented a 2.7 percent decrease from the prior month, but a 3.6 percent growth compared to the prior year. For year to date, total petroleum imports were up by 6.7 percent compared with year to date 2016.
Crude oil imports increased 2.8 percent from February 2016 to 8.1 MMbd in February of this year. Crude oil imports were 2.0 percent lower than January of this year’s levels. Refined product imports in February increased by 6.6 percent from the prior year to just under 2.3 MMbd, but were 5.2 percent lower than the prior month.
