US March Oil Demand Rises 2% Year-on-year

U.S. total oil demand rose for the second consecutive month in March, fueled in part by the continued strength in demand for gasoline, federal data released on Tuesday showed.

 

U.S. oil demand rose by 2 percent, or 378,000 barrels per day, from a year ago to 19.61 million bpd, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed.

 

The March figures mark the fourth year-over-year increase in total oil demand in the last nine months, including February's growth of 1.5 percent, EIA data shows.

 

The demand growth was led by gasoline, which jumped 3.8 percent, or 344,000 bpd, from a year ago to 9.4 million bpd, according to the EIA's petroleum supply monthly report.

 

The gasoline demand numbers were strong enough to overcome weaker demand for distillates, which fell to 2.8 percent, or 113,000 bpd, versus last year.

 

The U.S. Department of Transportation released figures last week that showed motorists logged 5 percent more miles on U.S. roads in March than they did a year earlier, fueling a record pace in vehicle miles traveled for the first three months of the year.

 

The 5 percent increase resulted in 273.4 billion miles being driven in the month, an historic high for March.


(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)