India’s fuel demand rose more than 5% year-over-year in February, but hit its lowest since October 2022, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed on Thursday.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 18.49 million tonnes.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose 8.9% to 2.8 million tonnes. Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), sales decreased 0.1% to 2.39 million tonnes.

Preliminary fuel sales data on March 1 showed India’s gasoil and gasoline sales rose in February from the previous month, signalling increased industrial activity.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, jumped 21.5% month-on-month, while fuel oil use declined slightly more than 5% in February, compared with January.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ashitha Shivaprasad and Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru Editing by David Goodman and Devika Syamnath)