(Reuters) -India’s fuel consumption hit a five-month high in October, with demand rising 7.7% from September to 20.17 million metric tons, oil ministry data showed.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
India is the world’s third-largest consumer and importer of oil and largest buyer of Russian seaborne crude, taking advantage of discounts on Russian oil as Europe and the U.S. shun those barrels over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
BY THE NUMBERS
India’s fuel demand in October hit its highest level since May, though it was down 0.4% from the same month last year, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.
Sales of gasoline, or petrol, totaled 3.67 million tons, up 8% from September and 7.6% higher year-on-year.
Diesel consumption jumped 12.2% on a monthly basis to 7.62 million tons in October, but was down 0.4% from a year earlier.
Liquefied petroleum gas consumption totaled 2.87 million tons, up 5.5% from a year ago and 2.5% higher compared with September.
Naphtha sales dropped 23.3% year-on-year to 0.89 million tons, while demand for bitumen, used for road construction, fell 15.8% from the previous month to 0.66 million tons.
Fuel oil usage fell 4.8% from a year earlier to 0.6 million tons and was 11.3% higher than in September.
CONTEXT
Industry sources said last week Indian refiners had paused purchases of Russian oil after Washington sanctioned two major Russian crude exporters, as they awaited government guidance and sought spot-market alternatives.
But top refiner Indian Oil Corp then bought five cargoes of Russian oil for December delivery from non-sanctioned entities, traders said on October 30, despite U.S. pressure on New Delhi to curb imports.
Meanwhile, Russian crude was trading at its steepest discount to Brent in a year in Asia as Indian and Chinese refiners reduced purchases following the sanctions, industry sources said on Thursday.
KEY COMMENTS
“The end of the monsoon is seasonally lifting month-on-month demand, year-on-year was a mixed story, with weakness in the petrochemical sector (pet coke, naphtha) and solid growth for transport (gasoline, jet fuel),” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.
DOMESTIC SALES (in millions of metric tons):
2025 2025 2025 2024 2024 2024
Octobe September August Octob Septemb August
r er er
Diesel 7.62 6.79 6.58 7.65 6.37 6.50
Petrol 3.67 3.40 3.54 3.41 3.15 3.36
LPG 2.87 2.80 2.83 2.72 2.61 2.66
Naphtha 0.89 0.93 1.07 1.16 1.02 1.16
Jet fuel 0.77 0.72 0.71 0.76 0.73 0.73
Kerosene 0.04 0.04 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.04
Fuel Oil 0.59 0.53 0.50 0.62 0.56 0.49
Bitumen 0.66 0.57 0.37 0.64 0.42 0.29
TOTAL 20.17 18.73 19.14 20.25 17.41 18.26
(Reporting by Sherin Elizabeth Varghese and Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
