U.S. gasoline consumption for the month of October increased to the highest level since 2007 as low prices spurred demand.
Deliveries of gasoline, a measure of demand, rose 0.8 percent from a year earlier to 9.22 million barrels a day last month, the American Petroleum Institute said in a monthly report Thursday. Consumption of all petroleum products fell 0.3 percent to 19.6 million.
Demand for distillate fuel, a category including diesel and heating oil, decreased 3.7 percent to 4.1 million barrels a day. Residual fuel demand tumbled 38 percent to 153,000 barrels a day as prices for natural gas, a competing source of energy, have declined.
“October brought strong demand for gasoline, but record refinery production actually outstripped demand for all four major petroleum products,” said John Felmy, chief economist at the API in Washington.
Refineries boosted gasoline output 3 percent to 9.84 million barrels a day last month, a record for October. Stockpiles of the fuel rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 215.2 million, the highest for the month since 1990.
The U.S. pumped crude in October at the fastest pace for the month since 1973. Output climbed 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 9.15 million barrels a day last month. It was the smallest year-on-year gain in 56 months, the API said.
Production of natural gas liquids, a byproduct of gas drilling, rose 2.8 percent from October 2014 to 3.29 million barrels, a record for the month and 32,000 barrels short of the all-time high reached in August.
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