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India’s diesel consumption in November declined year-on-year (YoY), even as festival demand pushed up petrol consumption during the Diwali month, according to official fuel consumption data.
Oil industry executives said diesel demand saw a temporary hit in November as a sizable number of trucks would have not plied for a few days given that many truckers tend to take a break around the major festival.
On the other hand, use of personal vehicles usually shoots up amid Diwali festivities, explaining the rise in petrol consumption during the month. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) consumption also registered robust year-on-year growth in the peak festival travel season. It is worth noting that Diwali was in November this year, while last year, it was in October. This is also likely to have played a role in the year-on-year fuel consumption patterns.
India’s November diesel consumption declined 3 per cent YoY to 7.53 million tonnes, according to data released on Thursday by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry.
Diesel is the most consumed petroleum fuel in India, accounting for around 40 per cent of the country’s overall consumption of petroleum. The transportation sector accounts for over two-thirds of diesel consumption in the country. A senior official with one of the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) said diesel consumption was likely to normalise in December.
Petrol consumption in November rose 9.4 per cent YoY to 3.13 millon tonnes, while ATF consumption rose nearly 12 per cent to 0.69 million tonnes, according to PPAC data. Despite higher consumption of petrol and ATF, overall consumption of petroleum products, considered a proxy for oil demand, declined 2 per cent YoY to 18.72 million tonnes.
Apart from the fall in consumption of diesel, lower consumption of products like bitumen, fuel oil and petroleum coke, among others, led to the decline in overall petroleum consumption.
On a sequential basis, diesel consumption in November declined 1.4 per cent from October’s level, while petrol consumption also contracted slightly — by 0.4 per cent. ATF consumption in November was largely flat vis-à-vis October.
According to industry executives, fuel demand in October was higher due to the onset of the festival season as well as increased demand from the agriculture sector. Sequentially, festival demand is likely to have tapered off — in the case of petrol and ATF — in the second fortnight of November after the end of Diwali festivities, they said.
The country’s total petroleum product consumption declined 2.8 per cent month-on-month. India’s overall petroleum product consumption had hit a four-month high in October, mainly due to the increase in agricultural and industrial demand after the three-month monsoon lull, and the beginning of the festival season.
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