Indian fuel demand hit seven-month high in December

(Reuters) -India’s fuel consumption in December rose 2.1% year on year to 20.67 million metric tons, its highest level since last May, oil ministry data showed on Tuesday.

On a monthly basis, fuel demand was up over 1% from 20.46 million tons in November, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s (PPAC) website showed.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 10.8% higher from a year earlier at 3.31 million metric tons.

Diesel consumption saw a rise of 6% year-on-year to 8.1 million tons in December. It was down 1.3% month-on-month.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 5.8% on an annual basis to 2.78 million tons in December, while naphtha sales fell 22.7% to 1.07 million tons.

India is the world’s third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country’s oil demand.

India’s private sector output grew at the fastest pace in four months, preliminary readings from a survey showed last month, helping the economy end 2024 on a positive note, underpinned by sturdier demand in services and manufacturing and record jobs growth.

Last month, Russian state oil firm Rosneft agreed to supply nearly 500,000 barrels per day of crude to Indian private refiner Reliance in the biggest ever energy deal between the two countries, three sources familiar with the deal said.

DOMESTIC SALES (in million tons):

2024 2024 2024 2023 2023 2023

DEC. NOV. OCT. DEC. NOV. OCT.

Diesel 8.06 8.17 7.65 7.60 7.53 7.63

Petrol 3.31 3.43 3.41 2.99 3.13 3.14

LPG 2.78 2.67 2.72 2.63 2.49 2.50

Naphtha 1.07 1.05 1.16 1.39 1.05 1.19

Jet fuel 0.78 0.75 0.76 0.72 0.69 0.69

Kerosene 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.03

Fuel Oil 0.57 0.53 0.62 0.57 0.51 0.53

Bitumen 0.79 0.71 0.64 0.74 0.62 0.75

TOTAL 20.67 20.46 20.25 20.25 18.68 19.47

(Reporting by Anmol Choubey and Anjana Anil in Bengaluru. Editing by Jason Neely and Mark Potter)

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