India’s August fuel story: Petrol, diesel up, LPG down sharply

New Delhi: Petrol sales rose 7.9% and diesel sales 6.5% year-on-year in August, aided by increased mobility, stronger vehicle sales and an expanding economy, according to preliminary data from the oil ministry released on Tuesday.

Strong vehicle sales this fiscal have contributed to strong petrol demand. Cumulative sales growth during April-August was 6.5% for petrol and 4.3% for diesel. A rapidly expanding economy and uneven monsoon have driven diesel sales to an unusually high growth rate of 6.5% in August. An industry executive said farmers in many regions have been increasingly using diesel for irrigation.

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Meanwhile, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) sales rose 1.4%, while cooking gas, or LPG, sales fell 16.1%. The return to growth for ATF in August points to a recovery in air traffic, which had been hit by the West Asia war and soaring fuel prices. For the April-August period, ATF sales declined 0.6%.

Cooking gas consumption, surprisingly, continued to fall in August despite rising imports. The fall during April-August stood at 15.9%. Industry executives attributed the August decline partly to a shift to piped natural gas among households, eateries and factories.