U.S. gasoline consumption in the week leading up to the Independence Day holiday may have been the highest since 2019, adding to signs of recovery from the pandemic travel slump, analysts said. Demand for the week ended July 2 was probably about 9.6 million barrels of gasoline per day based on retail sales, with the strongest growth in the Rocky Mountains, said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. That would be the highest since September 2019, and compares with a national moving average in early July 2019 of 9.7 million barrels a day. The Energy Information Administration is due to report consumption figures on Thursday. Demand for gasoline at U.S. rack locations, the last stop in the supply chain before the pump, appeared to rise robustly at the end of last week, on some days challenging summer 2019 levels, according to a market participant. Demand consistently beating […]