Diesel consumption final month remained beneath pre-Covid ranges and down 3 per cent decrease than the year-ago ranges, whereas that of petrol grew by 8.7 per cent, in comparison with December 2019, in keeping with the gross sales information from state-owned oil advertising corporations (OMCs) Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
A nationwide lockdown to curb the unfold of Covid-19 in March and restrictions on the motion of individuals and items in subsequent months led to a pointy decline within the consumption of petroleum merchandise throughout the nation. Diesel consumption, which accounts for round 40 per cent of whole gasoline consumption within the nation, is taken into account a key indicator of financial exercise.
Diesel gross sales for the three state-owned OMCs fell to six,354 thousand metric tonnes (TMT) in December 2020 from 6,557 TMT a yr in the past. Petrol gross sales throughout the interval rose to 2,435 TMT from 2,240 TMT in December 2019. In November 2020, diesel gross sales have been down by 7 per cent year-on-year and petrol gross sales had grown 4.8 per cent y-o-y. Petrol gross sales have been above pre-Covid ranges since September 2020, with a rising desire for the usage of personal transport boosting petrol gross sales.
Industry sources famous that decrease utilization of public transport was behind decrease diesel consumption and that industrial demand and the demand from the logistics sector had reached pre-Covid ranges.
LPG gross sales grew by 7.6 per cent final month, whereas the gross sales of aviation turbine gasoline remained 43 per cent beneath the year-ago ranges, with airways working at effectively beneath most capability and home air passenger visitors nonetheless remaining round 50 per cent beneath pre-Covid ranges.
