Oil Prices Settle More Than $2 Higher at $131

Americans Pumping Less Gasoline than Last Year

U.S. retail gasoline demand last week fell from a year earlier for the fifth consecutive week, although demand rose from the previous week due to the Memorial Day holiday, MasterCard Advisors said Wednesday.

Year-to-date, American consumers have pumped 1.7 percent less gasoline than they did last year, the report said.

The Memorial Day holiday starts the U.S. summer driving season, and the increase in gasoline demand in the preceding week "is not unusual for this type of holiday weekend," said Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard Advisors.

"That said, we're still below where we were last year and a lot of that is because so far this spring, we haven't seen the seasonal increase," McNamara said.

Motorists pumped an average of 9.385 million barrels per day in the week that ended May 23, a 2.7 percent increase from the previous week.

But demand was 5.5 percent below last year's level as record high gasoline prices continue to encourage consumers to conserve fuel.

The four-week moving average for gasoline demand was negative for the fifteenth week in a row, slipping 6.3 percent from last year's levels.

Average retail gasoline prices were up 8 cents to $3.84 per gallon, setting a new record, according to the MasterCard report.

"It's in uncharted territory," McNamara said.

Energy analysts polled by Reuters expected the Energy Information Administration to report that U.S. gasoline stocks decreased slightly last week due to buying ahead of the Memorial Day weekend. The EIA releases its report on nationwide fuel inventories on Thursday.

MasterCard Advisors estimates retail gasoline demand based on aggregate sales activity in the MasterCard payments system coupled with estimates for all other payment forms.

MasterCard Advisors is a unit of MasterCard.