India's Fuel Demand: Surge in petrol sales; Decline in demand for diesel, know what is the reason
Petrol sales in India increased in August, but diesel continued to decline compared to the previous month. Due to rains in many parts of the country, there has been a sharp drop in the demand of diesel in some states.
Preliminary data on diesel-petrol consumption showed that petrol sales rose 5.8 per cent to 2.81 million tonnes in August. Whereas in the previous month there was a demand of 2.66 million tonnes. Let us tell you that the demand had decreased by 5 percent in July. Petrol consumption in August 2022 was about 16 per cent higher than in August 2021, while it was 31.7 per cent higher than the total consumption of 2.14 million tonnes in the same month of 2020. Compared to the pre-pandemic level of 2.33 million tonnes in August 2019, the demand for petrol was 20.6 per cent higher
Diesel demand down
Consumption of diesel, the most widely used fuel in the country, declined by 4.9 per cent to 6.11 million tonnes in July from 6.42 million tonnes. The demand for diesel in the country usually declines after the monsoon rains. Diesel demand is traditionally lower in July-September than in April-June. During the rainy season there is less movement of people and goods. On the other hand, due to rains, the demand for diesel in the agriculture sector decreases.
In July, the demand for diesel had fallen by 13.1 per cent. Diesel consumption was up 23.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis in August 2021, buoyed by strong economic growth following the second wave of COVID-19. The data shows that the demand for diesel stood at 4.26 million tonnes during August 2020. Sales in August 2022 were up by 11.6 per cent as compared to sales of 5.48 million tonnes in August 2019. June saw a sharp jump in demand for petrol and diesel, before a drop in auto fuel sales in July and August
ATF demand increased
India’s total air traffic (both domestic and international) approached pre-Covid levels. Meanwhile, demand for jet fuel (ATF) more than doubled to 541,000 tonnes during August compared to the previous month. This was 51.4 percent higher than the corresponding period last year and 118.9 percent higher than August 2020. However, it is 14.3 percent lower than the pre-Covid level of August 2019.
LPG demand decreased compared to July
LPG sales in August rose 5 per cent year-on-year to 2.44 million tonnes. LPG consumption was 7 percent higher than August 2020 and 2.5 percent higher than August 2019. The data shows that month-on-month demand declined by one per cent in August as compared to 2.46 million tonnes of LPG consumption during July.
