India’s petrol and diesel consumption picked up in May along with a pick-up in economic activity, along with the start of the harvesting season, helped by a return of demand, preliminary industry data showed on Monday.
Petrol sales during the first half of May grew by 14% compared to the same period last month, while diesel demand grew by 1.8%. LPG, the cooking gas which saw a decline in consumption last month due to higher prices, registered a growth of 2.8% in sales.
Petrol sales by state-owned fuel retailers, which control nearly 90% of the market, stood at 1.28 million tonnes during May 1-15, up 59.7% over a year ago and compared to the same period in 2019. 16.3% higher, the data showed.
Consumption was up 13.9% compared to 1.12 million tonnes seen a month ago.
Diesel, the most widely used fuel in the country, saw sales jump 37.8% year-on-year to 3.05 million tonnes in the first half of May. However, it was 1.5% lower than sales in 2019. This was 1.8% higher as compared to 2.99 million tonnes consumed during April 1-15 this year.
Industry sources said consumption was higher in May as demand slowed down following higher prices in the previous month. Also meeting the demand was the beginning of the harvesting season.
Another factor was the low base effect. April saw a decline in consumption as petrol and diesel prices increased by ₹10 per liter after a gap of more than four months.
LPG, whose prices were hiked by ₹50 per cylinder in March and every May 7, also took a dent in consumption due to the rate hike. LPG sales of 1.05 million tonnes during May 1-15 were down by 5.4% as compared to a year ago. It was 12% lower than the same period in May 2020 but 9.4% higher than 2019.
Month-on-month LPG demand was up 2.8% as compared to sales of 1.02 million tonnes in the first half of April 2022.
Jet fuel (ATF) sales rose 83.5% to 5,00,400 tonnes from 251,400 tonnes in May 1-15, but were down 18.7% from pre-COVID 2019 levels. However, they were 7.7% higher than the sales seen in the first half. of April 2022.
With the complete opening up of air travel, ATF sales are expected to pick up.