India's July fuel use rises over 7% y/y; jet fuel demand grows (updated)

ICRA

08/08/2024 08:04

(Updates with details and comments)
       Aug 8 (Reuters) - India's fuel consumption rose by more
than 7% year-on-year to 19.653 million metric tons in July, oil
ministry data showed on Thursday, driven by increased air travel
and overall economic growth.
    
    WHY IT IS IMPORTANT
    India is the third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The
data is a proxy for the country's oil demand.
    
    KEY QUOTE
    There has been a significant increase in jet fuel
consumption, along with similar trends in petrol and diesel,
said Prashant Vasisht, vice president and co-head, corporate
ratings at the India Credit Rating Agency (ICRA), adding that
the annual rise can be attributed to overall economic growth and
the surge in air travel.
    On a month-on-month basis, the trend is not very
significant, likely due to the impact of the monsoon, when
industrial demand typically declines, Vasisht added.
    
    BY THE NUMBERS
    Fuel demand was down 1.7% on a monthly basis from the 20
million metric tons consumed in June, data from the Petroleum
Planning and Analysis Cell's (PPAC) website showed.
    Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks and commercially run
passenger vehicles, rose 4.4% from a year earlier to 7.196
million tons in July. It was down nearly 10% on a monthly basis.
    Sales of gasoline or petrol rose more than 10% from the
previous year to 3.30 million tons, but were little changed from
June.
    Jet fuel demand jumped 9.2% on a yearly basis and 2.8% from
the previous month. 
    Demand for bitumen, used for making roads, declined by over
1% annually.
    Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas, sales rose 10% to
2.63 million tons, while naphtha sales gained 11% to about 1.16
million tons, compared with last July, the data showed.
    Fuel oil use increased by 6.4% year-on-year in July.
    
    CONTEXT
    India is set to receive above-average monsoon rainfall, a
top weather official said last week.
    India's manufacturing activity expanded at a solid pace in
July, according to a survey.
        
    DOMESTIC SALES (in million tons)
           2024   2024   2024   2023   2023   2023
           JULY   JUNE   MAY    JULY   JUNE   MAY
 Diesel    7.20   7.99   8.41   6.89   7.91   8.22
 Petrol    3.30   3.30   3.46   2.98   3.15   3.35
 LPG       2.63   2.31   2.41   2.39   2.23   2.35
 Naphtha   1.16   1.08   1.09   1.04   1.06   1.16
 Jet Fuel  0.73   0.71   0.74   0.66   0.64   0.67
 Kerosene  0.04   0.04   0.03   0.05   0.05   0.04
 Fuel Oil  0.53   0.54   0.62   0.56   0.51   0.60
 Bitumen   0.51   0.78   0.94   0.51   0.75   0.86
 TOTAL     19.65  20.00  21.08  18.29  19.48  20.69
 
    NOTES:
    Totals may not tally because all items are not included in
the table and numbers are rounded up or down. Few numbers for
previous months have been revised.

 (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Daksh Grover in
Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul and Mark Potter)
 ((Ashitha.Shivaprasad@thomsonreuters.com;))