EIA’s short-term forecasts of gasoline consumption, which cover the current and upcoming calendar year, have risen over the past year. The latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), released yesterday, expects 2014 gasoline consumption to be 8.82 million barrels per day (135.2 billion gallons), 0.13 million barrels per day (2 billion gallons) higher than last November’s forecast, which was close to the average 2014 consumption forecast across the 12 editions of STEO published in 2013. The STEO gasoline consumption estimates include the volumes of ethanol contained in all gasoline-ethanol mixtures, including both E10 and higher blends. As shown in the graph above, the STEO forecast of 2014 gasoline consumption was generally declining between January 2013 and September 2013, but has risen over the past year. The STEO estimates are used by industry as an indicator of market conditions and provide the starting point for EIA’s longer term projections. The latest available […]