<div>Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) has offered a kerosene cargo, turning seller for the first time, to export surplus capacity as domestic demand wanes, industry sources said on Tuesday, 12 March, 2013.<br /><br />The state-owned refiner has offered 15,000 tonnes of kerosene for loading from Kochi over March 27 to March 29 in a tender that closes on March 14, they said.<br /><br />India's usage of kerosene - used domestically as cooking - has falen as it is gradually replaced by liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).<br /><br />The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), a unit of the oil ministry, lowered India's kerosene demand growth by 9.5 percent to 7.45 million tonnes in January for the current fiscal year ending March 2013.<br /><br />It increased growth for LPG by 5.6 percent to 16.22 million tonnes.<br /><br />"Normally the kerosene produced in state-owned refiners are used for domestic consumption, but this has been slowly reducing as people switch to cleaner LPG," the India-based source said.<br /><br />Kerosene exports could become regular, the source added.<br /><br />This was also likely the first kerosene export by an Indian state-owned refiner, a second source said, though this could not immediately be confirmed. <br /><br />(PTI)</div>
