Fuel sales rebound in May as economic activity picks up
NEW DELHI: India’s petrol and diesel consumption jumped in May as pick up in economic activity and the start of the harvesting season aided the return of demand, a preliminary industry data showed Monday.
Petrol sales grew 14% during the first half of May when compared with the same period in the preceding month, while diesel demand rose 1.8%. Cooking gas LPG, which last month saw consumption declining because of high prices, posted a 2.8% rise in sales during May 1-15.
Petrol sales by state-owned fuel retailers, who control roughly 90% of the market, at 1.28 million tonnes during May 1-15 were 59.7% higher than the same period last year and 16.3% higher than the period in 2019, preliminary industry data showed.
The consumption was 13.9% more than the 1.12 million tonnes of sales in the first half of April 2022.
Diesel, the most-used fuel in the country, saw sales jumping year-on-year to 3.05 million tonnes in the first half of May. This was, however, 1.5% lower than sales in April 2019. It was 1.8% higher than 2.99 million tonnes of consumption during April 1-15 this year.
Industry sources said consumption in May is higher because of demand returning after high prices in the previous month cut demand. Also aiding the demand was the start of the harvesting season.
Another factor was the low base effect. April saw consumption drop due to a ₹10 per litre hike in petrol and diesel prices after an over four-month hiatus.
Cooking gas, whose prices were hiked by ₹50 per cylinder on March 2022 and on May 7 each, too saw a dent in consumption because of the rate increase. Sales of 1.05 million tonnes of LPG during May 1-15 was 5.4% lower when compared to the year-ago period. It was 12% lower than the same period of May 2020 but 9.4% higher than 2019.
Month-on-month LPG demand was up 2.8% when compared with 1.02 million tonnes sales in the first half of April 2022.
Jet fuel (ATF) sales rose 83.5 per cent to 500,400 tonnes in May 1-15 to 251,400 tonnes but was 18.7% less than pre-Covid levels of 2019. They were, however, 7.7% more than the sales in the first half of April 2022.
ATF sales are expected to continue to pick up with the complete opening up of air travel.