2ND UPDATE: Total Executive: Gasoline Demand To Fall In US, Europe

Gasoline demand in the U.S.and Europe is expected to fall through to 2020 due to the recession, climate change legislation and new refining capacity, a Total SA (TOT) executive said Monday.

"We are quite convinced at Total that in both regions the consumption will decrease very sharply," Andre Tricoire, senior vice president of refining, said.

Speaking at Platts' European Refining Markets conference in Brussels, Tricoire said the decline in gasoline demand in the wake of the global economic slowdown is one of the biggest threats to European refiners, who are heavily reliant on gasoline exports to the U.S.

Europe's gasoline surplus could grow to 50 million metric tons a year in 2020, particularly if U.S. regulations to limit carbon dioxide emissions further discourage gasoline consumption, he added.

Excess refining capacity is also expected to pressure refining margins in the short and medium term, he added, even though Total estimates that only 40% of announced new refinery projects will come online in the coming years.

Earlier this month, Total said it would shut its entire 137,000-barrel-a-day Dunkirk refinery in northern France in response to weak demand and slim refining margins.

Total also halted a crude distillation unit at its 331,000-barrel-a-day Normandy refinery in August due to poor refining economics.

-By Lananh Nguyen, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

(Adam Mitchell in Paris contributed to this report.)