(Reuters) – India’s fuel consumption slipped to a 10-month low in July, government data showed on Tuesday, as monsoon rains restricted mobility in the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer.
Total consumption in July, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 18.09 million tons, down 6.6% from June. However, it was up 2% compared with the same period a year earlier.
Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks and commercially run passenger vehicles dipped about 13% month-on-month to 6.89 million tons in July.
“With consumption patterns already slowing down due to the monsoon, weak July figures for diesel demand were aggravated by the floods in Northern Indian states over the first-half of last month,” said Viktor Katona, lead crude analyst at Kpler.
Fuel demand in India typically falls during the four-month monsoon season beginning in June as parts of the country are affected by heavy floods.
“Restricted mobility and an overall slowdown in construction activity have been the key factors behind bitumen demand falling to the lowest reading this year. We believe India’s diesel demand will remain subdued in August, only to rebound in September-October,” Katona said.
Sales of gasoline in July were 5.3% lower than the previous month at 2.99 million tons.
Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, dropped 30% from June, while fuel oil use rose 9.6% in July.
Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), sales increased about 7% to 2.39 million tons and naphtha sales rose 9.3% to 1.07 million tons, the data showed.
2023 2023 2023 2022 2022 2022
July June May July June May
Diesel 6.89 7.91 8.21 6.63 7.67 7.29
Petrol 2.99 3.15 3.35 2.81 2.97 3.02
LPG 2.39 2.23 2.35 2.40 2.23 2.16
Naphtha 1.07 0.98 1.16 1.15 0.95 0.83
Jet fuel 0.66 0.64 0.67 0.58 0.59 0.60
Kerosene 0.05 0.05 0.04 0.02 0.05 0.07
Fuel Oil 0.57 0.52 0.60 0.56 0.55 0.55
Bitumen 0.53 0.76 0.86 0.34 0.69 0.73
TOTAL 18.09 19.36 20.68 17.75 18.53 18.37
NOTE: Total figures may not tally because not all items are included in the table, and numbers are rounded.
(Reporting by Swati Verma, Ananya Bajpai and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)
