US total domestic petroleum deliveries, a proxy for demand, declined 20% year-on-year to 16.2 million bpd in May, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API). Despite the annual decline, the figure represents a 14% (2 million bpd) increase from April, the sharpest monthly percentage increase since December 1975. API said that motor gasoline demand contributed to 80% of the rise thanks to the gradual relaxation of the stay-at-home orders aimed to prevent COVID-19 transmission.
Total motor gasoline deliveries increased by 28.9% from April to 7.3 million bpd in May. However, gasoline consumption was still 22.5% lower than May 2019. Total distillate deliveries reached .4 million bpd in May, increasing by 4.8% from April, but remained 17% lower compared with May last year. Meanwhile, kerosene jet fuel deliveries plunged 20% month-on-month or 72.3% year-on-year to around 500,000 bpd, the lowest deliveries since April 1967. Deliveries of liquid feedstocks, including naphtha and gasoil, increased 7.3% from April to 4.9 million bpd in May.
US oil production fell to 11.4 million bpd last month, API’s data showed, a decrease of 600,000 bpd form the previous month. This marked a sixth consecutive month of decline and the sharpest year-on-year decline since September 2016. Meanwhile, US natural gas liquids (NGL) output declined slightly by 0.8% from April to 4.8 million bpd in May.
