Oil Falls a Fourth Day on Signs of U.S. Gasoline-Demand Drop (Christian Schmollinger)

June 18 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil fell for a fourth day in New York in the longest losing streak this year as data showed gasoline use in the U.S., the world's largest consumer, is declining as record prices curb demand. 

Consumers purchased an average 9.305 million barrels a day of motor fuels, 3.2 percent less than a year earlier, MasterCard Inc. said in its weekly SpendingPulse report. It was the eighth week of decline. Gasoline demand was down 1.7 percent from last year, the U.S. Department of Energy reported on June 11.

``It looks like we're seeing gasoline demand fall off on the order of 1 to 2 percent,'' said Anthony Nunan, an assistant general manager for risk management at Mitsubishi Corp. in Tokyo. ``Demand in the U.S. is about 9 million barrels a day. That's a sizable chunk so there is concern about this.''

Crude oil for July delivery fell as much as 85 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $133.16 a barrel in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract was at $133.37 a barrel at 12:52 p.m. in Singapore. The four-day decline is the longest since Dec. 18.

The contract closed yesterday at $134.01, down 60 cents. Futures climbed to a record $139.89 a barrel on June 16. Prices are 93 percent higher than a year earlier.

The average U.S. pump price for regular gasoline fell 0.2 cent to $4.078 a gallon after touching a record on June 16, AAA, the country's largest motoring club, said yesterday.

Brent crude oil for August settlement dropped as much as 72 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $133 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Europe exchange, and traded at $133.11 at 12:47 p.m. Singapore time. Prices reached a record $139.32 on June 16

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