U.S. petroleum deliveries drop 5% in 10 months

U.S. petroleum deliveries, an indication of demand, dropped 5% from January through October - marking their largest decline since the early 1980's, the American Petroleum Institute said in a monthly report released Wednesday. Total domestic deliveries averaged 19.6 million barrels per day in the January-to-October period, the lowest level for the period since 2000, the API said. "Not only have higher prices for much of 2008 been altering consumers' behavior, but more recent economic uncertainties have increasingly been putting a damper on demand, as well," said API statistics manager Ron Planting, in a statement.

Source: MarketWatch