New Delhi, July 7 (IANS) India’s consumption of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, and LPG rose by 1.9 per cent to 20.31 million metric tonnes in June from 19.94 million tons in the same month last year, according to official figures released by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Monday.

Sales of petrol went up by 6.7 per cent in June compared to the same month last year due to the increase in sales of cars and two-wheelers in the country, with the revival in rural demand amid a more robust performance of the agriculture sector.

Diesel, which is the most widely used fuel in the country as an input in both the farm and transport sectors, registered a 1.6 per cent increase to 8.11 million metric tons in June this year compared to the same month in the previous year. The growth in the consumption of diesel, which constitutes close to 40 per cent of fuel sales, reflects the higher economic activity in both the farm and logistics sectors of the economy.

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales surged by a robust 9.1 per cent to 2.53 million metric tons in June, compared to the same month of the previous year, as more households switched to cooking gas amid rising incomes, and the government’s Ujjwala scheme brought the fuel within the reach of poor families. Besides, commercial consumption of the fuel in hotels and restaurants has also gone up.

Sales of naphtha, which is used for making fertilisers, were up 2 per cent to 1.03 million metric tons during the month.

However, on a month-on-month basis, the sales of petroleum products fell by 4.7 per cent compared to the previous month due to the early onset of the monsoon in June.

India is the world’s third-largest consumer and importer of oil. The data is a proxy for the country’s oil demand.

Meanwhile, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri last month allayed fears over any disruption in oil supplies to Indian consumers during the Israel-Iran war and further escalation in geopolitical tensions in the Middle East because of the US bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites.

“We have been closely monitoring the evolving geopolitical situation in the Middle East since the past two weeks. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we have diversified our supplies in the past few years, and a large volume of our supplies does not come through the Strait of Hormuz now,” the minister said.

He pointed out that the country’s oil marketing companies (Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum) have supplies for several weeks and continue to receive energy supplies from several routes.

India has diversified its oil sources by increasing imports from Russia as well as the US and building resilience through strategic reserves in underground storage on the coast.

–IANS

sps/vd