US retail gasoline demand drops as prices rise - MasterCard

NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) - U.S. retail gasoline demand dropped last week from both the previous week and the level of last year, MasterCard Advisors said Tuesday.

"On a week to week basis, we had a pretty significant decline that coincided with the record prices," said Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard Advisors.

A week to week decline in retail gasoline is unusual for this time of year, when demand typically begins to ramp up ahead of the summer driving season, McNamara said.

This year, however, record retail gasoline prices at an average of $3.61 per gallon pressured demand.

Motorists pumped an average of 9.150 million barrels per day in the week that ended May 2. That was down 2.5 percent from the previous week and was 5.8 percent lower than last year's level.

Data from the report indicated that end of week and weekend demand for gasoline saw the sharpest decline, with more gasoline pumped at the beginning of the week.

"It suggests that consumers might be trying to stretch their tanks a little bit further for the weekend as opposed to filling up before the weekend," McNamara said.

The change may indicate that consumers are cutting down on discretionary driving like weekend trips, he pointed out.

The four-week average retail gasoline demand of 9.245 million bpd was down 1.2 percent from a year ago.