India’s fuel demand growth slowed to just 0.4 per cent in June as consumption of industrial fuel dipped, government data showed. Fuel consumption in June totalled 16.54 million tonnes as compared to 16.47 million tonnes in the same month of last year, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Oil Ministry showed. The oil demand growth in June was lower than 6.1 per cent in May and 2.4 per cent in April.
Sale of petrol in June soared 11.9 per cent to 2.06 million tonnes while diesel consumption was up 6.5 per cent at 6.79 million tonnes. Cooking gas LPG sales increased 15.9 per cent to 1.87 million tonnes but naphtha sales fell 4.3 per cent to 1.09 million tonnes. Consumption of bitumen, used for making roads, dipped 5.3 per cent to 483,000 tonnes while fuel oil use edged lower by 12.9 per cent to 552,000 tonnes in June.
Oil demand had plunged 5.9 per cent in January, the most in 13 years, after the shock demonetisation of high-value currency notes in November. Demand fell 3.1 per cent in February and 0.7 per cent in March before rebounding in April.
