India's fuel demand rises 3.3% in July, marks largest gain since January

India's fuel demand rose 3.3% in July, marking its biggest year-on-year percentage gain since January, compared with the previous year.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totaled 17.58 million tonnes, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed on Saturday.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 8.8% higher from a year earlier at 2.52 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, diesel sales climbed 3.3%, its highest year-on-year rise since January, to 6.83 million tonnes.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 9% to 2.22 million tonnes, while naphtha sales fell 5.2% to 1.22 million tonnes.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, surged 36.4%, while fuel oil use rose 8.3% in July.