Gasoline demand fell for the first six months of 2010, API reported today. According to the Monthly Statistical Report, U.S. gasoline deliveries (a key indicator of demand) averaged 8.88 million barrels per day, 0.6 percent lower than in the same period in 2009.

Gasoline deliveries in June, which is considered a peak month for vacations and the annual travel season, were at the lowest level for any June since 2004.

As API's Chief Economist John Felmy explained:

"The listless economic recovery continues to take a bite out of gasoline demand...This certainly supports API's position that increased taxes or other anti-jobs policies by Congress or the administration could increase unemployment and harm our economic recovery."

Other data from the June statistical report indicated that:

• Demand for distillates, which includes diesel fuel, was significantly higher in June and during the first half of 2010 as compared with the corresponding time periods in 2009. Distillate demand tends to track economic output closely.

• Total U.S. crude oil production averaged 5.47 million barrels per day in the first half of 2010, 3.5 percent higher than in the first half of last year.

• U.S. refinery operations improved in over the previous month. For the first half of this year, refinery inputs were 1.3 percent higher than during the first six months of 2009.

Oil and natural gas continue to be two of America's primary sources of energy. Oil and natural gas account for more than 60 percent of the energy consumed in the United States every day.