India's September fuel demand slips to its lowest in over two years

India's September fuel demand slips to its lowest in over two years

A worker checks a 500 Indian rupee note as a man fills diesel in containers at a fuel station in Kolkata

India's fuel demand fell to its lowest in more than two years in September, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) showed.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 16.01 million tonnes,its lowest since July 2017, down about 0.3 per centcompared with the same month last year.

Meanwhile, consumption of diesel, which is widely used for transportation as well as for irrigation needs in India, slipped more than 3 per centyear-over-year to 5.83 million tonnes, its lowest since January 2017.

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Sales of gasoline, or petrol, were 6.3 per centhigher from a year earlier at 2.37 million tonnes.

Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased by nearly 6 per centto 2.18 million tonnes, while naphtha sales slumped 26 per centto 0.84 million tonnes.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 7.3 per centlower, while fuel oil use edged lower 3.8 per centin September.