India's Fuel Demand Grows 1% In July

The country's fuel demand grew by over 1 per cent in July as consumption of diesel and petrol rose, government data showed.

Fuel consumption in July totalled 15.8 million tonnes as compared to 15.63 million tonnes in the same month of last year, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Oil Ministry showed.

The growth was higher than the 0.4 per cent recorded in June when consumption of industrial fuel had dipped.

Oil demand has been erratic this fiscal -- growing by 6.1 per cent in May and 2.4 per cent in April. For July, diesel sales were up 8.5 per cent at 6.3 million tonnes while petrol consumption was up 11.6 per cent at 2.14 million tonnes.

With a record number of free cooking gas connections being doled out, LPG sales were up 12.5 per cent to 1.92 million tonnes. Since launch of the scheme to provide free LPG connections to women of poor households in May last year, more than 2.6 crore connections have been given.

Naphtha sales fell 30 per cent to 833,000 tonnes. Consumption of bitumen, used for making roads, also dipped 8 per cent to 255,000 tonnes.

Oil demand had plunged 5.9 per cent in January, the most in 13 years, after the shock demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November. Demand fell 3.1 per cent in February and 0.7 per cent in March before rebounding in April.

(PTI)