Consumption of oil products up 3.4% in 2003-04

The consumption of oil products was up 3.4 per cent at 107.7 million tonnes during 2003-04, against 104.1 million tonnes in the previous year.

Diesel consumption, an indicator of the country's economic growth, moved up a mere 1.7 per cent at 37.2 million tonnes, against 36.6 million tonnes in 2002-03.

According to the latest consumption figures compiled by the petroleum ministry, with the government making LPG connection available off the shelf, the cooking gas recorded an encouraging jump of 11.4 per cent at 9.3 million tonnes, against 8.3 million tonnes in the previous year.

Thanks to the massive highway projects undertaken by the government, bitumen consumption improved 13.2 per cent -- from 2.9 million tonnes in 2002-03 to 3.3 million tonnes in 2003-04. A turnaround in the aviation sector helped aviation turbine fuel consumption grow 10.2 per cent from 2.2 million tonnes to 2.5 million tonnes.

On the flip side, consumption of kerosene, another important cooking fuel in India, declined 1.9 per cent from 10.4 million tonnes to 10.2 million tonnes.

This fall is largely attributed to LPG replacing kerosene in most households as the domestic cooking fuel.

Naphtha consumption also declined 1.3 per cent from 11.9 million tonnes to 11.8 million tonnes.

Industry sources say this could be because of stringent anti-adulteration steps initiated by the government last financial year. Naphtha is known to have been widely used for adulterating petrol.