(Reuters) -India’s fuel consumption in July fell by 4.3% month-on-month to 19.43 million metric tons, oil ministry data showed on Wednesday.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
India is the world’s third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country’s oil demand.
BY THE NUMBERS
Fuel demand in July fell 4% year-on-year to 19.43 million tons from 20.24 million tons a year earlier, while June demand stood at 20.22 million tons, data on the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell’s website showed.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, fell 0.9% to 3.49 million tons in July, compared with 3.52 million tons in June, but were up 5.8% from levels seen a year ago.
Diesel consumption was down 9% on a monthly basis and totaled 7.36 million metric tons in July.
Cooking gas or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales increased 10.3% to 2.78 million metric tons month-on-month, while naphtha sales fell 2% to 1 million metric tons.
On a yearly basis, LPG rose 4.9% while naphtha sales fell about 18%.
Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 32% lower in July, in comparison with June.
KEY QUOTE
“The month-on-month drop in diesel is the result of the monsoon season, which reduced the need of irrigation in the agriculture sector. It probably also weighed on flight activity, with lower jet fuel demand,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said.
“Demand is expected to recover again as we move into the fourth quarter.”
CONTEXT
U.S. President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday imposing an additional 25% tariff on goods imported from India, saying the country directly or indirectly imported Russian oil.
Last week, the Indian owners of three vessels chartered to Nayara Energy asked the Russian‑backed refiner to terminate their contracts after recent European Union sanctions, six sources familiar with the matter said.
India is likely to get average monsoon rainfall, critical to the economy, in August after receiving 5% above-normal rains in July, a senior weather department official said last week.
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
July June May July June May
Diesel 7.36 8.10 8.59 7.19 7.98 8.41
Petrol 3.49 3.52 3.78 3.30 3.30 3.46
LPG
2.78 2.52 2.65 2.65 2.32 2.41
Naphtha 1.00 1.02 0.95 1.22 1.01 1.09
Jet
fuel 0.71 0.73 0.78 0.73 0.71 0.74
Kerosene 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.03
Fuel
Oil 0.46 0.47 0.47 0.51 0.58 0.62
Bitumen 0.46 0.68 0.86 0.41 0.74 0.94
TOTAL
19.43 20.22 21.22 20.24 19.94 21.08
(Reporting by Ishaan Arora and Sherin Elizabeth Varghese in Bengaluru)
