Petroleum Product Deliveries Drop in September

Oct 31, 2001 12:00 PM

The September 11 terrorist attacks and the continuing lackluster economy were among the principal causes for a 3.7 percent drop in September's petroleum product deliveries compared to a year ago, the American Petroleum Institute (API) has reported. The industry’s deliveries, a key measure of consumer demand, declined 1.6 percent in the third quarter, the first quarterly drop since 1997, according to API.

With commercial airlines grounded for several days, along with hesitant passengers for a few weeks, kerosene jet fuel deliveries of 1.581 million barrels per day (b/d) were down 9.7 percent compared to September a year ago. Jet fuel production of 1.460 million b/d was down 11.1 percent from a year ago, the API report said.

Gasoline deliveries of 8.475 million b/d were down half a percent compared to a year ago, but they increased 1.2 percent comparing the third quarters of last year and 2001. Although there was some consumer price/supply nervousness detected because of the New York and Washington attacks, whatever unusual behavior that did occur subsided quickly when it became obvious that gasoline supplies and refinery operations were unaffected, the API monthly report said.

The slowing economy was clearly apparent in deliveries of distillate fuel, which is used to make home heating oil and diesel fuel. They went from 11.6 percent in this year’s first quarter, when compared to the same period in 2000, down to 1.6 percent in this just ended 3rd quarter, the report noted. Comparing this September to the same month last year, distillate deliveries of 3.664 million b/d fell 3.2 percent.