By Shivangi Acharya and Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian state fuel retailers’ gasoil and gasoline sales in June were little changed from the previous month, preliminary data showed, as people avoided travel as a heat wave in May gave way to monsoon rains.
Daily sales of gasoil rose marginally by 0.4% to 7.12 million metric tonnes in June compared with May, the data showed.
Fuel demand in India, the world’s third biggest oil importer and consumer, typically falls during the four-month monsoon season beginning in June as parts of the country are hit by heavy floods.
Monsoon rains also reduce demand from the agriculture sector as less irrigation-related requirements decrease.
Gasoil accounts for about two-fifths of India’s overall refined fuel consumption and is directly linked to industrial activity in Asia’s third-largest economy.
State fuel retailers’ daily gasoline sales remained flat at nearly 2.90 million tonnes, the data showed.
State-run retailers and refiners – Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum – own about 90% of India’s retail fuel outlets.
Below is a table of Indian state refiners’ preliminary daily fuel sales data with volumes in thousand tonnes.
Refined fuels June %Chg %Chg %Chg vs
2023 mth/mth yr/yr 2021
Gasoline 2897.2 0.0 3.4 33.5
Gasoil 7121.6 0.4 -3.7 30.3
Jet Fuel 587.3 -2.4 6.0 140.3
Liquefied Petroleum Gas 2279.9 -3.4 -0.8 -0.2
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)
