Drivers in California, the most- populous U.S. state, cut back on gasoline use in 2006, the first time demand dropped in 14 years, a state agency said.

California drivers consumed 15.8 billion gallons of gasoline last year, down 0.7 percent from 15.9 billion in 2005, the State Board of Equalization said in a statement on Friday.

It was the first time since 1992 that statistics “show a downward trend in gasoline sales statewide,” Betty T. Yee, who chairs the board, said in a statement released Friday in Sacramento.

The five-member Board of Equalization is a publicly elected tax board. It collects almost $53 billion annually in taxes and fees supporting state and local government services.

Demand for gasoline rose in the first three months of 2006 compared with a year earlier, and then dropped from April through December, the report showed.

During the nine-month period of lower demand, drivers in the state used 112 million fewer gallons than they did in the same period in 2005. The average statewide pump price during those nine months was $2.958 a gallon.

Surging gasoline prices caused consumers to limit their use of personal vehicles, the distances they traveled, and spurred demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles, including hybrids, the report said.