Mirroring slowdown in the economy, India's fuel consumption grew by a bare 4.4 per cent in December with diesel sales recording the lowest expansion rate in the current fiscal.
Petroleum product consumption rose 11.6 million tonne in December as against 11.12 million tonne a year ago, according to the latest data available from Petroleum Ministry here.
Diesel, the most consumed fuel in the country, recorded a 1.5 per cent growth at 4.43 million tonne. "This was mostly due to dealers reducing upliftments and keeping low inventory in anticipation of a price cut," an official said.
Low freight traffic with railways, a major consumer of diesel, and not-so-encouraging agriculture scenario also contributed to the low growth rate.
Petrol demand grew 5.5 per cent to 929,300 tonne.
Slowdown in demand also reflected on crude oil imports, which fell 40 per cent to 6.85 million tonne in December. Maintenance shutdown at some public sector refineries led to a 60.3 per cent lower crude imports by PSU firms at 2.98 million tonne, while private imports were almost unchanged at 3.86 million tonne.
Petroleum product imports were down 21.4 per cent at 1.632 million tonne with naphtha being the most imported fuel at 5,53,000 tonne (14.3 per cent growth).
Exports also declined 12.3 per cent to 2.58 million tonne with diesel shipments fall 18.4 per cent at 1.08 million tonne.
"While PSU exports (at 8,28,400 tonne) are in line with trend in current year, private exports (at 1.75 million tonne) were the lowest in December," the official said. "Total export volume lost up to December 2008 was 2.7 million tonne of which PSUs lost 2.03 million tonne."
