US crude oil demand fell 2.3% in February from a year earlier

According to a report from Reuters Washington, the statistics released by the American Petroleum Institute (API) on March 16 showed that although February gasoline consumption increased for the first time in the past year, US crude oil demand in February was still lower than the same period of last year. 2.3%.

According to API statistics, the daily demand for crude oil in the United States fell to 18.426 million barrels in February, while the daily demand for gasoline increased by less than 1% year-on-year to 8.724 million barrels.

John Fermi, chief economist of API, believes that the demand for gasoline from American consumers is still not strong, but a slight increase in gasoline demand is worth noting, which reflects the recent improvement in employment in the United States.

Statistics also show that US crude oil imports fell to 10.403 million barrels per day in February, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7%, of which refined oil imports fell to an average of 1.574 million barrels per day, a decrease of 36.8% year-on-year; the volume of refined oil exports increased over the same period. The daily average was 304.2 million barrels, an increase of 18.1% year-on-year.

In addition, as of the end of February this year, U.S. crude oil inventories (excluding strategic oil reserves) increased by 6.2% year-on-year, reaching 345.8 million barrels.