Road travel: up or down?
July 20th, 2009 by Jim JustThe Oil & Gas Journal reports that according to American Petroleum Institute (API) figures:
US petroleum product demand plunged to its lowest first-half level in more than a decade as the sluggish economy continued to squeeze oil consumption.
Total product deliveries (how API measures demand) averaged 18.75 million b/d during this year’s first 6 months, 5.8% below the comparable 2008 period’s 19.9 million b/d and nearly 10% below the peak of 20.75 million b/d in first half 2005, API said as it released its latest monthly, quarterly, and 6-month statistics.
Diesel deliveries dropped 9.2%. Gasoline demand fell at a lower rate: 0.9% below the first six months of 2008 levels, down to its lowest first-half level since 2003.
At the same time, Federal Highway Administration figures show total travel on U.S. is down by only 0.8% for the first six months of 2009, and that total mileage actually rose by 0.1% in May.
Is everybody switching to more fuel-efficient vehicles, or what?
Whatever’s happening to overall VTM, per capita VTM has been falling since 2005 and is now back down to levels not seen since 1998:
