Slowing oil use

Slowing consumption growth will mean adequate petroleum supplies through 1990 , says Bank of America. The San Francisco-based bank projects worldwide oil-use growth will ebb to 1 percent a year during the 1980s from 3 percent in the last decade and 6 percent in the 1960s. Lower consumption - with the United States recording the largest decline among developed nations - is the result of higher oil prices, conservation, and efficiency gains plus a shift to other fuels, notes James C. Cosso of the bank's economics-policy research department.