India's Fuel Demand Falls In Nov After Hitting 4-Month Peak In Earlier Month

After hitting a four-month peak in the earlier month, fuel consumption in India declined by over 2% in the month of November. According to the data from the Indian oil ministry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) published on December 6, 2023, total consumption in November, a proxy for oil demand, fell by 2.8% to 18.72 million tonnes from 19.26 million tonnes in October.

Overall fuel demand in India slipped 2% year-on-year (YoY) in November, driven by a 3% fall in diesel sales, showed the petroleum ministry data on Friday.

Petrol and jet fuel sales, grew around 9% and 12%, respectively, in November compared to the same period last year, led by a rise in leisure travel in the festive season. Robust vehicle sales also contributed to petrol sales, which accounts for 17% of the country's overall refined products sales volume. Sales of diesel, which constitute 40% of the overall volumes, contracted in November after a 6.6% jump in the April-October period.

Diesel sales are mainly driven by commercial mobility as the share of diesel vehicles in passenger cars has seen a significant drop over the years.

Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks and commercially-run passenger vehicles, fell by 1.4% month-on-month to 7.53 million tonnes

Diesel demand usually surges ahead of the festival season. This time both Diwali and Durga Puja were a little late, stretching up to the middle of November, this brought variance in fuel demand and resulted in imperfect monthly sales comparisons.

Sales of gasoline in November were 0.4% lower than the previous month at 3.13 million tonnes. The demand for bitumen, used for building roads, dropped by 9.4% from the previous month, while fuel oil use slipped by 1.3% in November.

India's fuel consumption had hit a four-month peak in the previous month. India is the world's third-biggest oil consumer. The data also showed that Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas, sales fell from to 2.49 million tonnes to 2.48 million tonnes in November.