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After declining in April, the country’s diesel and petrol consumption rose again in May on a month-on-month (M-o-M) basis, while demand for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) remained flat during the same period.
Diesel, or high speed diesel (HSD), consumption rose marginally by 1.4 per cent M-o-M to 7.3 million tonnes in May, while petroldemand grew 7 per cent M-o-M to 3 mt. LPG consumption was flat at around 2.2 mt in May, Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) data showed.
Overall, the consumption of petroleum products during May recorded a growth of 23.8 per cent with a volume of 18.3 mt compared to the same period of the previous year. Total natural gas consumption (including internal consumption) for May was 5,381 mscm, which was 1.8 per cent higher than the corresponding month of the previous year.
Imports
During May, the import of LNG stood at 1.4 mt against 1.6 mt in April. Crude oil imports stood at 19.6 mt in May against 21.5 mt in April 2022.
Overall, India imported 19.6 mt of crude oil valued at $15.4 billion during May. Similarly, LNG imports stood at 2,534 million standard cubic metres (mscm) valued at $1.2 billion.
The price of Brent crude averaged at $113.25 per barrel in May 2022 as against $104.39 during April 2022 and $68.75 during May 2021. The Indian basket crude price averaged $109.51 per barrel during May 2022 as against $102.97 during April 2022 and $66.95 a barrel during May 2021.
High prices
The monthly consumption of petrol and diesel by the world’s third largest consumer had hit an all-time high in March 2022, even as retail prices of the two key commodities shot up to their highest levels for that month.
This was aided by economic activity inching back to normalcy as well as common man and industries stocking on fuel in anticipation of the government resuming fuel price mechanism post assembly elections in five states. Fuel price revision resumed from March 22.
Besides, high prices of petrol and diesel also led to some demand destruction during April as prices crossed ₹100 a litre for both auto fuels in several parts of the country. Subsequently, on May 21, the Centre slashed excise duty on petrol by ₹8 per litre and on diesel by ₹6 a litre. Post the reduction, the prices of petrol in Delhi has come down by ₹96.72 a litre and diesel at ₹89.62 a litre.
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