India's fuel consumption fell 0.6% year-on-year in March, but demand for the 2024 financial year was up about 5%, primarily driven by higher automotive fuel and naphtha sales.
Total consumption, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 21.09 million metric tons (4.99 million barrels per day) in March, down from 21.22 million tons (5.02 mbpd) last year, preliminary data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed on Saturday.
However, fuel demand for the 2024 financial year, ending in March, hit a record high of 233.276 million tons (4.67 mbpd) compared to 223.021 million tons (4.48 mbpd) a year earlier.
Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks and commercially run passenger vehicles, rose 3.1% year-on-year to 8.04 million tons in March and was up 4.4% for the previous fiscal year.
Sales of gasoline in March rose 6.9% year-on-year to 3.32 million tons and were up 6.4% for the fiscal year.
Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were largely steady in March, but were up 9.9% for the fiscal year.
Sales of cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas, rose 8.6% to 2.61 million tons, while naphtha sales jumped 5.5% to about 1.19 million tons, compared with last March, the data showed.
The usage of fuel oil fell 9.7% year-on-year in March and declined 6.3% for the fiscal year.
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