India’s fuel demand rose by 2.8 per cent in August this year, as compared with same month last year, but was recorded at its lowest level in nine months. According to data from Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of Oil Ministry, consumption of fuel which is a proxy for oil demand totalled to 17.04 million tonnes in August, which happens to be its lowest since vember 2018.

Petroleum sales increased

While sales of gasoline, or petrol, showed considerable improvement of 8.9 per cent higher from a year earlier at 2.57 million tonnes, those of diesel fell 1.1 per cent to 6.12 million tonnes, marking its first year-on-year percent decline in nine months.

Meanwhile, sale of cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) surged 13% to 2.40 million tonnes and that of naphtha increased by 3.7 per cent to 1.15 million tonnes. Bitumen, which is used to make ros, presented an increase in sales by 23.%, while us of fuel oil edged lower to 15.9 per cent in August.

Overall, India revised down its fuel consumption for July to 17.68 million tonnes, which is an increase of 3.9% from previous year. It happens to be its biggest year-on-year percent gain since January.

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Growth of core industries take a dip

According to earlier data, growth of eight core industries including coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement, and electricity in India dropped to 2.1 per cent in July.

growth rate in production of steel, cement, and electricity recorded a decline to 6.6%, 7.9%, and 4.2%, respectively, against 6.9%, 11.2%, and 6.7%. output of coal, crude oil, natural gas and refinery products was recorded negative in a review.

drop in growth, which comes amid Indian ecomy recording its lowest quarterly growth for 6.5 years, is being credited mainly to a contraction in coal, crude oil, and natural gas production.

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