The nation’s oil imports fell 16.9% last month.

The American Petroleum Institute said imports averaged 4.277 million barrels a day in January against a daily average of 5.147 million barrels in January, 1984. The oil industry group attributed the decline in oil imports from a year earlier to the postponement of foreign oil purchases because of uncertainty about falling oil prices. Imports also slipped to 26.5% of all oil consumed in the United States from 30.8% a year earlier, the group said.