U.S. demand for petroleum declined in 2006 for the second consecutive year, the American Petroleum Institute said on Friday in a report.

Total U.S. petroleum deliveries, a measure of demand, fell last year to 20.6 million barrels per day, down from 20.8 million in 2005, the report showed.

It also showed that total petroleum imports by the United States, the largest energy consumer in the world, were slightly down to 13.6 million barrels per day. Imports accounted for 66 percent of U.S. domestic petroleum use for the year.

U.S. crude oil production dipped 1.1 percent in 2006 to 5.1 million barrels per day. That was mainly because production in Alaska declined 12.1 percent due to the shutdown of a major pipeline.

Oil well completions in 2006 were the highest in 18 years, and natural gas completions hit an all-time high, according to the report.

In 2006, residual fuel oil deliveries fell nearly 27 percent to 673,000 barrels per day as industrial and electric utility facilities made major shifts to natural gas, said the report.

Jet fuel demand declined by 2.8 percent to 1.6 million barrels a day, as airlines conserved fuel as best they could.

However, demand for distillate fuel, including highway diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.3 percent to about 4.2 million barrels per day. Gasoline demand increased 0.8 percent to more than 9.2 million barrels per day, the report said.

Source: Xinhua