U.S. OIL PRODUCTION HITS 30 YEAR LOW

June 22, 1992
The American Petroleum Institute reports U.S. crude oil production in May dropped to its lowest level in more than 30 years. Production was 7.055 million b/d, down 3.9% from 7.339 million b/d in May a year ago, and the lowest monthly average since 1961. Two thirds of the year to year drop was due to an 11% decline in Alaskan production related in part to scheduled maintenance. Lower 48 production dropped by about 90,000 b/d from a year ago.

The American Petroleum Institute reports U.S. crude oil production in May dropped to its lowest level in more than 30 years.

Production was 7.055 million b/d, down 3.9% from 7.339 million b/d in May a year ago, and the lowest monthly average since 1961.

Two thirds of the year to year drop was due to an 11% decline in Alaskan production related in part to scheduled maintenance. Lower 48 production dropped by about 90,000 b/d from a year ago.

This May's U.S. production represents a drop of 23% or more than 2 million b/d from the recent peak of a little less than 9.2 million b/d in February 1986.

Demand for petroleum products remained soft, with products supplied from primary storage averaging 16.317 million b/d, up only 1.4% from the 16.098 million b/d delivered in May 1991.

API said imports of crude and products were 7.900 million b/d, down 7% from the 8.496 million b/d of a year ago. Despite that, for the first 5 months of 1992, imports rose almost 500,000 b/d or about 6%.

Refinery activity continued to rebound in May from the first quarter's 5 year low. Inputs to stills were up fractionally from the levels of a year ago but were at the highest level for May since the late 1970s.

Among major products, jet fuel production was up 3.8% from year ago levels, while distillate fuel production was up 0.4%. In the case of jet fuel, production was at an all time high for the month, while distillate production was the highest for any May since 1979.

Gasoline production fell nearly 1% from last year.

Utilization of refinery capacity was 92.5%, unusually high for May and nearly 2 percentage points higher than a year ago.

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