Crude oil imports dipped 1.9% to 6.94 million tonne in February as domestic consumption rose only marginally to 9.17 million tonne with a fall in diesel demand.India imported 6.941 million tonne of crude, including 2.033 million tonne by Reliance Industries, as against imports of 7.077 million tonne in February 2004. Reliance had imported 2.423 million tonne crude last year, according to latest data released by the petroleum ministry today.Petroleum product demand at 9.179 million tonne in February was only 1.1% higher than 9.082 million tonne consumed in the same period last year.Imports of petroleum products, however, nearly doubled to 1.214 million tonne from 6,25,100 tonne last year due to increased imports of LPG.Crude imports moved up 6.6% between April-February 2004-05 to 87.372 million tonne when compared with 81.958 million tonne in the corresponding period of the previous year.Consumption increased 3.8% to 101.529 million tonne from 97.842 million tonne in April-February 2003-04.
