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Petro product demand up 5% in Jan to 9.39 mn tonnes
14.22 IST 26th Feb 2004
By IndiaExpress Bureau
Mirroring an upswing in economic activity, India's petroleum product demand has risen 5 per cent in January to 9.39 million tonnes mainly on account of an increase in naphtha and industrial fuel consumption.
Petroleum product sale by public sector units at 8.03 million tonnes was 4.2 per cent higher than 7.7 million tonnes sold in January 2003 while private sector sold 1.35 million tonnes, 9.6 per cent more than 1.23 million tonnes in previous year, according to the latest data from Ministry of Petroleum.
Diesel demand, an indicator of economic activity, was up 3.6 per cent to 3.09 million tonnes in January from 2.99 million tonnes a year ago. Diesel had been in the negative territory for most of 2003-04 and had come in the black since November.
Naphtha sales were up 8.7 per cent to 1.16 million tonnes and fuel oil 10.3 per cent to 1.15 million tonnes. However, demand for light diesel oil, which is believed to be widely used for adulterating diesel, came down 19 per cent to 150,600 tonnes in January.
During the first 10 months of 2003-04 fiscal, India's petro demand grew 1.7 per cent to 88.56 million tonnes as opposed to 87.11 million tonnes of the same period last year.
PSU sales were up 0.7 per cent to 75.81 million tonnes while private sector sales increased 7.8 per cent to 12.74 million tonnes.
Negative growth in the first half of 2003-04 kept diesel consumption at 30.59 million tonnes when compared to 30.71 million tonnes sales in April-January 2002-03.
<ul> ~ Indien</ul>
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