Excuse me for a second, I need to hunt down some runaway replicants and help E.T. phone home. When not using a flamethrower to destroy shape-shifting alien monsters at my Antarctic research station or watching Eddie Murphy roust a redneck bar, I like to suit up and face Tron in a lightbike race to the death. Oh, pardon me. You'll have to excuse those references, because I was back in 1982. Apparently, U.S. oil demand has had its largest drop in 26 years. U.S. oil consumption fell by an average 800,000 barrels per day in the first half of the year. The helped offset a 1.3-million barrel per day increase in petroleum consumption in nonindustrial countries during the first half of the year, which was one of the main contributors to running up oil prices even as U.S. gasoline consumption continued to fall. U.S. oil consumption is expected to fall a total 480,000 barrels this year after oil consumption begins to rise following lower prices, and then drop another 120,000 barrels next year. The Energy Information Administration is estimated U.S. oil demand in 2009 will average 20.08 million barrels per day, the lowest level since 2003. So bring out your Atari 2600 and turn up the "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" soundtrack, because we've entered a time warp back to the era of Reagan and dweebazoids. –Stephen Payne, Editor, Oil and Gas Investor This Week; www.OilandGasInvestor.com; spayne@hartenergy.com