The latest monthly statistics report of the American Petroleum Institute (API), which measured total domestic petroleum deliveries, showed that US petroleum demand fell significantly in April to its lowest for the month since 1970. The demand fall reflects the escalation of stay-at-home orders and other measures to curb the coronavirus transmission.
Overall petroleum demand in the US decreased by 26.7% from March to 14.2 million bpd in April. Total motor gasoline deliveries, a proxy for demand, stood at 5.7 million bpd in April, falling by 39.6% from April 2019 and 31.1% from March, marking the largest monthly fall on record. Meanwhile, average conventional gasoline prices in the US dropped by 31.7% or 94.3 cents/gallon from a year ago.
Total distillate deliveries stood at 3.2 million bpd last month, down by 22.0% and 19.6% year-on-year. This also represented the sharpest monthly decline on record. Kerosene jet fuel deliveries decreased 55.9% month-on-month and 64.8% year-on-year to 600,000 bpd in April, dragged by cancellations of 95% of passenger flights. Meanwhile, residual fuel oil deliveries increased 54.9% from March and 32.0% from April 2019 to 223,000 bpd last month.
US refinery throughput stood at 13.3 million bpd last month, down 2.6 million bpd from March, the most significant decline since 1985 as refiners anticipated dwindling demand and exports. This throughput indicated a capacity utilization rate of 70.1%, which was 14.4 percentage points lower than March level, and the lowest monthly rate since 1985.
