Exclusive: Petrol consumption dips 2%, diesel by 9% in February

The consumption of petrol had grown by 6.2 percent in January, and that of diesel had shown recovery with a mere 2 percent fall.

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The consumption of petrol and diesel in India has declined by 2 percent and 9 percent, respectively, in February compared to the same period last year, showed the latest data from the three oil marketing companies - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum - accessed by Moneycontrol.

This could be attributed to the recent rise in fuel prices in India.

The consumption of petrol had grown by 6.2 percent in January, and that of diesel had shown recovery with a mere 2 percent fall.

Interestingly, cooking gas was the only petroleum product that saw an upward curve in consumption, posting an increase of 8 percent.

With international flights yet to take to the skies, the consumption of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) was also down 41 percent in February.

According to the latest data, diesel consumption in February stood at 2.22 million tonne (MT), compared t0 2.26 MT in in the same month last year. On the other hand, diesel intake declined from 6.4 MT last year to 5.8 MT this year.

ATF dropped from 0.652 MT to 0.3876 MT and LPG saw an increase from 2.1 MT last February to 2.26 MT this year.

Though petrol consumption had recovered from lows seen during the COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown by October 2020, diesel was still down.

Notably, the price of petrol increased by Rs 4.87 a litre and that of diesel by Rs 4.99 a litre in Delhi in February. On March 1, the price of petrol in Delhi was seen at Rs 91.17 a litre and diesel at Rs 81.47 a litre.

The price of non-subsidised liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) was hiked by Rs 25 per cylinder on March 1. With the current hike, the price in Delhi was seen at Rs 819 per cylinder.