Peak Oil is You
Donate Bitcoins ;-) or Paypal :-)
Page added on March 16, 2015
US fuel consumption is soaring amid cheaper prices
Fuel demand in Texas is growing strongly as lower oil prices encourage motorists to use their vehicles more and buy larger replacements.
Receipts of motor fuel taxes in February 2015 were 6 percent higher than in the same month in 2014, according to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts.
Texas collected almost $284 million in motor fuel taxes last month compared with $269 million in February 2014 according to the comptroller’s monthly Revenue Watch report (link.reuters.com/xas34w).
Motor fuel taxes must be paid to the comptroller by the 25th day of the month after which they are collected by suppliers and distributors, so the February receipts are for gasoline and diesel sold in January.
Year-over-year collections – and by extension gasoline and diesel sales – are growing at the fastest rate for more than a decade.
Texas consumed 35.7 million gallons of gasoline and 20.1 million gallons of diesel each day in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Texas accounts for 10 percent of nationwide gasoline sales and 13 percent of diesel sales. The state is second only to California in the consumption of gasoline and is the largest diesel consumer in the union.
Texas tax statistics are the fastest leading indicator of fuel sales. But nationwide data in recent months has painted a similar picture of rapidly growing gasoline and diesel sales across the country as the economy strengthens and cheaper prices encourage more driving.
Contrary to the International Energy Agency, which last week painted a gloomy picture in its monthly Oil Market Report, there is evidence the oil market is rebalancing relatively quickly.
The number of rigs drilling for oil in the United States has fallen by almost half in the last five months, which should soon cause shale output to level off or fall in the next few months.
In the meantime, gasoline and diesel prices have dropped by $1 per gallon since June 2014, encouraging more driving.
Crude inventories are high but are a lagging indicator. More forward-looking data suggest rebalancing is proceeding rapidly.
12 Comments on "US fuel consumption is soaring amid cheaper prices"
shortonoil on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 9:28 am
Texas is a big state with a lot of large lunk-heads. As consumption goes up in Texas it will go down somewhere else.
forbin on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 9:28 am
yay! plenty of condensate to turn into petrol , sorry , gasoline !
go Texas !, go!
time to fill up the Transam !
( well, before summer guys , the cliff beckons ! )
Forbin
Northwest Resident on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 12:38 pm
Gas consumption is way up in Texas, as all the recently laid off shale oil workers and their families pack up their belongings into UHaul trucks and make the long trip back home, towing all the boats and four wheel drive pickup trucks and everything else that they bought while the money was (very) good. In so doing, they are burning a LOT of gas. And this is not just a temporary spike in oil consumption increase in Texas either, as the rig counts continue to decline and the long lonely highway into the sunset is packed bumper to bumper with laid off folks hauling their possessions from far off lands such as North Dakota and Colorado, taking the long trek back home.
BobInget on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 1:25 pm
If we were to use ‘oil prices’ as our metric, Why Would We need this Web site?
It’s all very simple, price goes higher, oil scarce.
Prices goes down, oil (over) plentiful.
Or maybe not.
Maybe, just possibly, oil is more important then marks on a graduate.
Does anyone here really believe in fairies?
If so, you must also believe in magic.
Please, stop reading here.
This oil market is being manipulated for the express, undeclared, misperceived benefit of several major oil exporting nations.
This web site P.O.Com, is about to gain thousands of ‘new’ visitors all looking for answers as to why oil prices are surprise,
surprise, rising faster then they went down.
(in the case of energy, everything that goes down Must come back up)
What are we going to tell them?
Who, (or what) will YOU blame?
Best make plans now.
shortonoil on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:14 pm
And this is not just a temporary spike in oil consumption increase in Texas either, as the rig counts continue to decline and the long lonely highway into the sunset is packed bumper to bumper with laid off folks hauling their possessions from far off lands such as North Dakota and Colorado, taking the long trek back home.
Oil just hit a $43 handle. Wonder how many rigs that news will take down? Since shale is a net zero energy commodity, shutting in a barrel of production reduces demand by a barrel. Inventory re-balancing is going to be a long, slow process, and prices are not likely to recover very rapidly. After this shake out only the strongest of the strong will remain, and their fate is sealed:
http://www.thehillsgroup.org/depletion2_022.htm
35% of world GDP is directly powered by petroleum. As petroleum goes so does that 35%. What impact that 35% will have on the remaining 65% can only be speculated upon, but it is not likely to be a minor effect.
http://www.thehillsgroup.org/
Apneaman on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 2:47 pm
What exactly is the definition of soaring? Can it be expressed mathematically?
Plantagenet on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:17 pm
Make a commodity cheaper and people will buy more of it. Gasoline got cheap because of the oil glut and people are now buying more gas.
Its perfectly normal and expected.
Thats the way economics works.
BobInget on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 3:31 pm
Shortonoil…
Just a few rhetorical questions (if you prefer).
Where WAS President V.Putin for ten days?
Why did Vlad call up 40,000 troops, put Arctic nuclear missiles on high alert?
Is Putin fearful of Western interference in Ukraine? Or, Is Putin fixin to take charge of OPEC version 2.0 with a grand alliance, (nuclear umbrella) between Iran, Iraq, Venezuela, Libya, Nigeria and Algeria?
Why did oil retreat $4.00 in last two
sessions? On IEA and EIA reports refiguring
2015 consumption higher and production lower perhaps?
Why is Netanyahu losing his reelection bid?
Why did Bibi throw out ‘Two State Solution’?
Why is Israel urging European Jews to
emigrate?
Can any Mideast peace come about if Israel refuses to natural gas revenue share?
Who fears US/Iran rapprochement more?
a) Republicans in US Senate
b) Saudi Arabia
c) Syria
d) Russia
e) Kuwait
f) Israel
g) ISIL
(answer: all of above)
What was the closing BRENT price in Europe? ($54.10)
Will Wednesday’s close be higher or lower?
Finally, How many p/d, ‘conflict barrels’ are either off line or being consumed by assorted militaries?
a) one million
b) two million
c) three million
e) four million?
shortonoil on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:29 pm
If lower prices produce higher demand then why has product supplied fallen for the last three weeks?
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_wpsup_k_w.htm
NG prices are plunging like oil, and stocking are going up, but people aren’t using more because of low prices. That must be the new ECON 101 at worK?
http://ir.eia.gov/ngs/ngs.html
shortonoil on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:39 pm
What exactly is the definition of soaring? Can it be expressed mathematically?
Soaring is a little hard to define; not soaring is a little easier. Here is not soaring!
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_cons_wpsup_k_w.htm
shortonoil on Mon, 16th Mar 2015 4:45 pm
PS check Motor Gasoline, graph for graph
Kenz300 on Tue, 17th Mar 2015 11:21 am
In 2007 when oil prices soared people were parking pickup trucks and were trading them in for sub compacts……..
When oil prices rise again people will curse the high prices and not think about the bad decision they made to buy a gas guzzling pickup truck with a 6 year loan…..
It will be maddening to still be making payments on a truck that is parked and you can not afford to drive it.