India's fuel consumption rises 9% in May to 20 million tonne, shows data

Fuel consumption in India, a proxy for oil demand, rose 9 per cent on an annual basis in May. On a sequential basis, consumption rose by 8 per cent.

Consumption of fuel totalled 20 million tonne (mt) in May, up from 18.37 mt in May 2022, data released by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) on Thursday showed.

Sale of diesel, the most used fuel in the country, rose 11.9 per cent to an all-time high of 8.21 mt in May. Diesel sales were 7.28 mt in May 2022. Petrol sales also reached record levels, rising 10.8 per cent to 3.34 mt over the month, up from 3.01 million tonnes in the year-ago period.

Meanwhile, LPG offtake rose to 2.34 mt in the latest month, up from 2.15 mt in May 2022.