US slowdown, price sag, glut cut oil imports 10% last month

A slowing United States economy, weakening oil prices, and a persistent glut of crude caused a big drop in oil imports in the third quarter of 1984, the American Petroleum Institute reports.

Oil imports fell 10 percent during September and showed a similar decrease for the third quarter as a whole, the API says. Crude oil inventories fell almost 9 million barrels in September.

The third-quarter decrease in imports contrasts with 40.3 percent and 9.5 percent increases in the first and second quarters of '84, respectively. API says those high levels of imports compensated for reduced imports in late '83.