The American Petroleum Institutesaid that U.S. crude oil production in February declined 9.8
pct from year-ago levels to about 8.3 mln barrels a day.
    In its monthly report on U.S. oil supplies and stocks, API
said that domestic demand for petroleum products, as measured
by products supplied, continued to rise reaching 16.3 mln
barrels a day in the month, up 1.5 pct from February 1986.
    API noted the drop in crude oil output coupled with a
drop in natural gas liquids production, which was off 11 pct
from February 1986 levels, represented a decline in U.S.
production of more than one mln barrels a day.
    API said the decline in domestic production and the rise in
demand brought petroleum imports to about six mln barrels a day
in February, a 30.3 pct increase from last year's level.
    So far this year, API said growth in domestic demand, which
was up 2.9 pct from last year's year-to-date level, has slowed
in comparison to the accelerated growth in the last half of
1986.
    It said crude oil production for the first two months of
1987 was off 8.6 pct from the comparable year-ago period while
crude imports were up 30.6 pct.
 Reuter
