Consumption of U.S. petroleum climbed last week, driven by demand for jet and distillate fuels, while production ticked up and inventories dropped, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said Wednesday. 

The boost in consumption extended a summer-long trend — a few weekly interruptions aside — despite mounting coronavirus cases that forced downward revisions to oil demand and production forecasts in recent days.

For the week ended Aug. 13, overall demand increased 10% week/week and eclipsed the same calendar week of 2019 — pre-pandemic — by 2%, EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed.

Gasoline consumption, however, declined. It totaled 9.3 million b/d last week, down 97,000 b/d from the prior week and 200,000 b/d below the average level from the prior six...