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In a monthly report by the American Petroleum Institute (API), oil demand in April 2008 rose by 0.2 percent compared to the same month last year, the first time this year monthly demand averaged higher than the corresponding month in 2007. But year-to-date oil demand continues to lag behind 2007 levels.

Deliveries of oil products between January and April this year averaged 20.2 million barrels per day, down 2.4 percent from the first four months of 2007.

Distillate and gasoline production continued to break records. Distillate ouput averaged 4.2 million barrels per day, up 1.7 percent from a year ago and gasoline production at 8.9 million barrels per day, was up nearly 1 percent. Refinery crude oil inputs, which had been slipping month by month since a seasonal peak in November and December, averaged 15.15 million barrels per day in April compared with 14.87 million barrels per day the previous month. US refiners used 86.7 percent of their total production capacity in April, falling short of year-ago levels by 1.5 percent.

Total petroleum imports reached 13.18 million barrels per day of crude oil and refined products in April, down more than five percent from April 2007. Crude imports averaged 9.81 million barrels a day and refined products imports 3.37 million barrels per day with crude imports falling 3.7 percent and imports of refined products dropping by 9.3 percent from a year ago. Imports of gasoline rose to 1.2 million barrels per day, the highest level since September 2007 but still 8 percent less than a year ago. Distillate imports fell slightly from April 2007, averaging 304,000 barrels per day.

In April, crude oil inventories rose more than 7 million barrels from March levels, but were still 5.1 percent lower than the same month last year and 1 percent lower than the five-year historical average. Distillate inventories dropped by 3 million barrels to end April at 110 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell from March to April by nearly 7 million barrels to 212 million barrels. The figure remained 7.5 percent higher than April 2007 levels and 6 million barrels above the five-year average.

Domestic crude oil production in April fell 1.7 percent from a year ago to 5.07 million barrels per day, the fifth year-to-year decline in a row.