Watch This Chart To Know If Gasoline Demand Falls Off The Cliff

by Joe Weisenthal

As gas prices take on more and more importance, it’s useful to know which data and data sources are worth checking out.

Here’s an easy one.

The Energy Information Agency has a weekly report called This Week In Petroleum, which combines oil/gas data with some very useful commentary on the latest developments.

For example, this week they hone in on the matter of collapsing non-OPEC supply, and the impact that is having on oil:

Libyan supply is returning to the market, but supply disruptions in other parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were part of the price story last month — this time in South Sudan, Yemen, and Syria. In the former Sudan, an unresolved dispute between Sudan and the newly independent South Sudan led the latter to shut in all of its production at the end of January. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) now projects that total production from Sudan and South Sudan will fall to an average 200 thousand barrels per day (bbl/d) in 2012 from about 430 thousand bbl/d last year, before recovering to 370 thousand bbl/d in 2013. In Yemen and Syria, civil conflict is also taking a toll on oil output. Yemen’s production, already impaired by an ongoing outage to the Marib pipeline, was further curtailed in February by a strike at the country’s largest oil field. EIA projects that Yemen’s production will average 180 thousand bbl/d in 2012, and 200 thousand bbl/d in 2013, down from a pre-crisis level of around 260 thousand bbl/d. In Syria, damage to a major pipeline that feeds one of the country’s two refineries has exacerbated production problems. EIA now expects Syria to produce 260 thousand bbl/d in 2012 and recover to 360 thousand bbl/d in 2013, versus 400 thousand bbl/d pre-crisis.

Anyway, for your immediate econ needs, scroll to the bottom of the gasoline sub-section, where you’ll find this chart.

As you can see from the red line, daily gasoline demand this year is well off last year’s levels despite many more people having jobs than at this time last year.

And that’s a 4-week moving average. On a week-per-week it would actually look more stark, as demand is down 10% from a year ago this time.

They update this page every Wednesday. Well worth your time checking out.

Read more: BI