Oil product sales down 3.5% in Aug
Country's oil product sales fell in annual terms in August, official data showed on Friday, as heavy rains and floods in large parts of the country hurt consumption.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: Country's oil product sales fell in annual terms in August, official data showed on Friday, as heavy rains and floods in large parts of the country hurt consumption.
However, demand was expected to remain strong in Asia's third-largest oil consumer in the short-to-medium term. Oil product sales were down 3.5 per cent in August at 9.05 million tonnes from 9.38 million tonnes in August 2005.
The oil ministry said sales were down in August from a year earlier partly due to some stocking up of supplies last year.
"In August 2005, dealers stored high stocks in anticipation of price increases of petrol and diesel. Last year, prices of petrol and diesel were increased in September," a ministry official said.
Demand for fuel products was expected to rise in September as weather conditions have improved, the ministry said.
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Diesel sales were 3.13 million tonnes in August, down 1.2 per cent from sales of 3.17 million tonnes a year earlier. Petrol sales rose 0.2 per cent from a year earlier, while naphtha sales rose an annual 14.3 per cent on higher imports by petrochemical units.
Imports rise
Due to higher imports of naphtha and kerosene, country's oil product imports in August were up 14.9 percent to 1.44 million tonnes against 1.25 million tonnes in the same month last year.
State-run refiners purchased 129,400 tonnes of kerosene in August, an increase of 143.3 per cent over 53,200 tonnes of same month last year.
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In the current financial year that began in April, private refiners have not sold kerosene to the state-run refiners, forcing them to look at buying it from overseas.
Fuel product exports in August rose 61.3 per cent from a year earlier to 2.90 million tonnes, as growth in India's refining capacity has far exceeded the demand.
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India has an annual refining capacity of 140 million tonnes, far higher than the estimated demand of 118 million tonnes in the year to March 2007. But some feel domestic demand is not fully reflected in the numbers.
"Demand growth remains weak despite the fact that India's economy is expanding at some 8 per cent annually," the International Energy Agency said in a recent report.
Officials said major contributions to exports came from naphtha and diesel. Naphtha exports were about 25 per cent of total exports as fertiliser plants switched to gas.
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