09 January 2013, Sweetcrude, Houston – US oil demand is expected to inch up by a modest 0.3% in 2013 and 2014, after falling 1.6% to a 15-year low in 2012, government forecasters said Tuesday.
Demand is expected to grow to 18.71 million barrels a day in 2013, from 18.65 million barrels a day in 2012.
Projected demand in 2014 of 18.77 million barrels a day still would lag the 2011 level.
Demand for gasoline – the most widely used petroleum product in the world’s biggest oil consumer – is expected to flatten out at the 2012 level of 8.73 million barrels a day through 2014 as the impact of slow growth in the driving-age population, retirement of less-fuel efficient vehicles and improvement in fuel-economy standards take hold.
Demand slipped in 2012 by 0.2%, the third straight decline, hitting an 11-year low.
The EIA said all of the major petroleum categories contributed to the slide in consumption in 2012 despite a continued economic recovery and little change in year-over-year inflation-adjusted retail fuel prices.
Most of the consumption growth in 2013 and 2014 is expected to comes from distillate fuel oil — an umbrella grouping of diesel fuel and heating oil — and from liquefied petroleum gas.
