India's March fuel demand jumps 4.2%, hits 3-year high

India's fuel demand rose 4.2% to a three-year peak in March, compared with the year-ago period, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the oil ministry showed on Monday.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 19.41 million tonnes, its highest since March 2019.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 6.2% higher at 2.91 million tonnes from a year earlier.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 9.9% to 2.48 million tonnes, while naphtha sales fell 13.2% to 1.11 million tonnes.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 11.6% lower, while fuel oil use advanced 14.4% in March.

DOMESTIC SALES (in million tonnes):

2022 2022 2022 2021 2021 2021

March Feb Jan March Feb Jan

Diesel 7.71 6.51 6.37 7.23 6.57 6.81

Petrol 2.91 2.55 2.47 2.74 2.47 2.61

LPG 2.48 2.40 2.57 2.26 2.26 2.49

Naphtha 1.11 1.19 1.29 1.28 1.22 1.21

Jet fuel 0.54 0.43 0.46 0.47 0.43 0.44

Kerosene 0.11 0.12 0.13 0.16 0.14 0.15

Fuel Oil 0.58 0.52 0.54 0.51 0.48 0.52

Bitumen 0.90 0.88 0.81 1.01 0.85 0.82

TOTAL 19.41 17.58 17.62 18.63 16.67 17.64

NOTE: Total figures may not tally because not all items are included in the table, and numbers are rounded. The numbers for previous months may have been revised.

(Reporting by Bharat Govind Gautam in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)