April 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will use less gasoline this summer than last year, the first drop for that season since 1991, said Guy Caruso, administrator of the Energy Information Administration.

Demand is expected to fall by 85,000 barrels a day, Caruso told reporters today at a Washington conference. In 1991, summer gasoline use fell 1.4 percent following a 9-month recession during George H.W. Bush's presidency.

About half of the projected decline this summer will be caused by more reliance on ethanol, Tancred Lidderdale, an analyst with the agency, said in a telephone interview.

Caruso said the national average gasoline price will be above $3.60 per gallon because of rising oil prices.

``We'll be raising our gasoline-price projections,'' Caruso said. ``The crude price assumption is going to be up higher than we said it was in our March outlook.''

Caruso said gasoline price outlooks continue to rise because of soaring oil prices. Oil, which touched a record $111.80 a barrel March 17 in New York, rose 2.7 percent to $109.09 today.

Last month, the Energy Information Administration said the average price of gasoline would peak near $3.50 per gallon in May or June, and the average oil price in 2008 would be $94 a barrel.

The agency, which is the statistical arm of the Energy Department, is scheduled to release its updated summer outlook tomorrow.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Whitten in Washington at dwhitten2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 7, 2008 15:27 EDT