The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude stocks rose by 4.3 million barrels, or 1.5 percent, to 294.5 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 26. At the same time, gasoline inventories rose by 900,000 barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 179.6 million barrels. ...supply increases show that Gulf Coast energy infrastructure is steadily resuming operations after shutdowns caused by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav -- but also that U.S. consumers and businesses aren't in a position to resume their old fuel-guzzling habits. A slump in energy demand has accelerated in Asia. In India, domestic oil product sales totaled 2.41 million barrels per day in August, the lowest level this year, according to Barclays Capital research. In the same month, Japan's oil demand fell by 8.4 percent. U.S. energy demand also continues to wane, according to the weekly EIA report. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 26 was 4.5 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging more nearly 8.9 million barrels a day. At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 72.3 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 5.6 percentage point from the prior week, according to the EIA. Analysts expected capacity to rise in a range of 5 percent to 8 percent to 71.7 percent to 74.7 percent. At the pump, a gallon of regular fell 1.4 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.619, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Prices Information Service and Wright Express. (crude oil fell below $100/barrel today due to decreased demand) Oil down on stronger US crude, gasoline supplies: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance
Well, maybe waning demand is an indication that countries are starting to buy a bigger clue about alternatives. . _H*
IOW, global economic recession/depression is the best mediating remedy for global warming(from the earth's POV)
It's also the best mediation for peak oil, while we continue research and implementation into switching over to clean energy. And for the conservatives, it's also greatly reduced our immigration rate. Just as long as you keep your job, it ain't all bad.
Part of the U.S. demand "decrease" was actually the result of the hurricanes. There were quite a few people without power in Houston, not working, and with no gasoline availability. Demand is still being artificially suppressed by the lack of availability in the Atlanta region. Demand is still there, but supply is not regionally.
