The consumption of motor gasoline in the United States is strongly seasonal, with more consumed in the summer and less consumed in the winter. On a yearly basis, the consumption of motor gasoline in the United States has been steadily increasing as vehicle-miles increased. In the week of June 29 this year, the consumption of motor gasoline reached a record high of 8.9 million barrels per day. Thereafter, the consumption has decreased. In the most recent reporting week (11-Jan-02), the consumption was 8.3 million barrels per day, 7 percent lower than its peak in June.
Motor gasoline (more than 90 percent) is refined domestically. Anticipating the strong demand in summer, the motor gasoline supply reached its historical high in the week of July 20 this year with an average of 9.2 million barrels per day. By the beginning of January, motor gasoline supply declined to 8.2 million barrels per day, almost 11 percent lower than July of last year.
|Motor Gasoline Supply (thousand barrels per day)||4-Jan-02||11-Jan-02|
|Production from domestic sources||8,244||8,238|
|Percent change from previous week||-0.58||-0.07|
|Percent change from previous week||-6.25||-4.84|
|Motor Gasoline Consumption (thousand barrels per day)||4-Jan-02||11-Jan-02|
|Motor gasoline consumed||8,288||8,359|
|Percent change from previous week||-6.45||0.86|
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report, December 2001, Available at: http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/info_glance/gasoline.html