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U.S. Fuel Prices Slip as Demand Falls

Consumer demand for gasoline in the U.S. fell 8% last week to 9.1 million barrels per day, the lowest monthly rate in four years.
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Consumer demand for gasoline in the U.S. fell 8% last week to 9.1 million barrels per day, the lowest monthly rate in four years, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports.

Meanwhile, the average price of regular grade gasoline has dropped to $2.87 per gallon this week from $2.90 last week.

Bad weather across much of the country contributed to the drop in consumption. Even so, the total supply of gasoline in the U.S. fell 3% to 232 million barrels last week from the same period last year.

EIA, which in January predicted global supplies of available crude oil would rise by 150,000 b/d in the first quarter of 2019, says supplies ended up falling by 400,000 b/d during that period. But the decline isn’t expected to last: EIA says shrinking supplies of crude are likely to push U.S. fuel prices up by the end of May.

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