U.S. June oil demand down 5.4 percent from year ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. demand for crude oil and petroleum products declined 5.4 percent during June as the weak economy continued to take a toll on energy consumption, the American Petroleum Institute said on Thursday.

June's total petroleum product deliveries, excluding exports, averaged 18.607 million barrels per day, down 1.071 million bpd from a year ago, the API said in its monthly oil report.

Deliveries, which are a good indicator of demand, are calculated by the API to reflect petroleum products moved from refineries and bulk storage to wholesale and retail suppliers.

U.S. petroleum demand declined 6 percent to 18.75 million bpd in the first half of 2009, falling to the lowest level for the 6-month period in more than 10 years.

"The economic slowdown has had a particularly large impact on diesel and on jet fuel, though gasoline remains depressed, as well," said API Statistics Manager Ron Planting in the report.

June gasoline demand increased by 16,000 bpd, or 0.2 percent, to 9.126 million bpd. Gasoline consumption for the first 6 months of 2009 was still down 0.9 percent from the same period a year ago.

Deliveries of distillate fuel oil -- which includes heating oil and diesel fuel -- declined by 279,000 bpd, or 7.4 percent, to 3.484 million bpd.

Jet fuel demand in June plunged 19.4 percent to 1.309 million bpd and residual fuel use sank 11 percent to 608,000 bpd.

On the supply side, U.S. crude oil production rose 1.7 percent to 5.183 million bpd.

Crude oil and petroleum product imports averaged 11.323 million bpd, down 15.2 percent from a year ago.

Total imports in June accounted for 60.8 percent of U.S. oil demand, down from 67.8 percent a year earlier.