EIA: US 2Q Oil Use Revised -260,000 B/D Vs April Forecast
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NEW YORK -- Citing "a continuing weak economy," government forecasters said Tuesday U.S. oil demand in the current quarter 2009 will be 18.64 million barrels a day, down more than 1 million barrels a day, or 5.3% below a year ago.
The latest projection from the Energy Information Administration is 1.4%, or 260,000 barrels a day below its April forecast.
Demand will be the weakest for the quarter in 13 years and the lowest in any quarter since the first quarter of 1998.
For the peak driving season, which spans the second and third quarters, gasoline demand will average 9.075 million barrels a day, fractionally below the month-earlier forecast, and 0.7%, or 65,000 barrels a day above the 2008 level.
For all of 2009, oil demand in the world's biggest energy consumer will be the weakest since 1997, at 18.85 million barrels a day, down 2.9%, or 570,000 barrels a day below a year earlier.
The forecast is a downward revision of 140,000 barrels a day from the April forecast. A 200,000 barrels a day drop in distillate demand (heating oil and diesel) accounts for much of the decline.
In 2010, expected economic recovery will lift demand by 250,000 barrels a day to 19.1 million barrels a day, the EIA said.
U.S. third-quarter oil demand will average a 12-year low of 18.79 million barrels a day, down 0.3%, or 50,000 barrels a day from a year earlier, and 60,000 barrels a below the April forecast, which projected a slim year-on-year rise.
EIA: World 2Q Oil Use Revised -440,000 B/D Vs April Outlook
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NEW YORK -- Amid the continued global economic downturn, U.S. forecasters Tuesday said world oil demand in the current quarter will be 82.68 million barrels a day, down 3.9%, or 3.4 million barrels a day, from a year earlier.
In its May short-term energy outlook, the Energy Information Administration cut its second-quarter oil demand forecast by 440,000 barrels a day from a month earlier.
The EIA also revised upward its world demand figure for the second-quarter 2008 by 910,000 barrels a day, to 86.07 million barrels a day.
Oil demand from China, the world's second-biggest oil consumer after the U.S., will average 8.09 million barrels a day in the current quarter, down 100,000 barrels a day, or 1.2%, from a revised year-earlier level. The EIA revised its second-quarter 2008 demand figure for China upward by 200,000 barrels a day from the figure used in April, to 8.19 million barrels a day.
For all of 2009, the EIA sees world demand down 2%, or 1.77 million barrels a day, from a year earlier, at a five-year low of 83.67 million barrels a day. The decline would be the biggest on a percentage basis since 1982 and the most on a volume basis since 1981, EIA data show.
Chinese oil demand in 2009 is expected to average a record 8.05 million barrels a day, up 1.25%, or 100,000 barrels a day, from a year earlier.
Demand in the major industrialized nations such as the U.S. that comprise the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is expected to fall 2 million barrels a day in 2009 from a year earlier to a 14-year low of 45.35 million barrels a day. OECD demand will shrink a further 120,000 barrels a day in 2010, to 45.23 million barrels a day, even as demand rises elsewhere.
In 2010, world oil demand is expected to rise by 720,000 barrels a day, or 0.9%, to 84.39 million barrels a day. China's oil demand is expected to rise by 270,000 barrels a day, or 3.4%, to 8.32 million barrels a day.
The EIA said preliminary oil inventories at the end of the first quarter in OECD nations are sufficient to cover an unusually high level of 60 days of forward demand, with much of the counter-seasonal build occurring in the U.S. OECD stocks were "well above average levels" at 2.7 billion barrels at the end of 2008.
An additional 130 million barrels of surplus crude is housed in floating storage on tankers, the EIA said. Industry estimates have generally cited a figure of 100 million barrels in floating crude-oil storage.