India's fuel demand in November soars 12% on demonetisation

New Delhi: India's fuel demand surged 12.1 per cent in November on the back of high petrol and diesel sales following demonetisation. After banning old 500 and 1,000 rupee notes on November 8, the government allowed their use for paying for auto and cooking fuels for almost a month.

Petroleum product consumption rose to 16.64 million tonnes in November, up from 14.84 million tonnes in the same month a year back, according to the data released by the oil ministry here.

Petrol consumption was up 14.4 per cent to 2.01 million tonnes while diesel sales soared 10.45 per cent to 6.75 million tonnes. But when compared to October, the sales were up only marginally. 16.55 million tonnes of petroleum products were sold in October 2016 with petrol sales at 2.1 million tonnes and diesel at 6.67 million tonnes.

Cooking gas or LPG sales in November surged 16.5 per cent to 1.88 million tonnes as the government gave free connections to poor households. Naphtha consumption was up 6.9 per cent to 1.08 million tonnes while sales of bitumen, used for making roads, jumped 23.3 per cent to 534,000 tonnes. Fuel oil use edged up 12.6 per cent to 572,000 tonnes in November.