Petro products consumption falls in February

The trinity of declining vehicle sales, low off-take of bulk diesel following deregulation and the ceiling on subsidised cylinders, saw overall consumption of petro products in February 2013 plunge to a 23-month low, though consumption of petrol saw a modest increase.

Diesel consumption fell 2 per cent in February after nearly four years of continuous growth, primarily due to a sharp decline in off-take of bulk diesel by state transport undertakings, construction, cement and mining companies.  The share of bulk sales to total diesel sales declined from about 18 per cent in 2011-12 to about 10.2 in February 2013, according to the Industry Sales Review Report released by the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell of the Union Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

The fall in consumption was also attributed to low traffic growth at ports, falling sales of commercial vehicles and improvement in power situation, especially in the western parts of India. Petrol showed mixed trends, with February consumption at 1,278 TMT but lower than the average consumption for April-February, 2012013. Overall, it grew 4.2 per cent, the report said, despite low sales of passenger vehicles and two wheelers.

The government’s announcement on increasing the cap on subsidised cylinders from six to nine notwithstanding, sales of LPG witnessed a decline of 4.8 per cent. The decline is for the fourth straight month in 2012-13, the report said. The drive by oil marketing companies to detect and block duplicate domestic connections also contributed to it, the report said. 

The sluggishness in the domestic aviation industry, a recurring feature for most part of the current fiscal, continued to reflect in the fall in consumption of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) in February at 6.8 per cent, after some positive signs starting October 2012.