Month-on-month petrol sales dropped 4.9 per cent when compared to 2.86 million tonnes consumption in November. Diesel demand too was down 0.8 per cent month-on-month when compared to 6.79 million tonnes in November.
The decrease in petrol and diesel sales in India during December can be attributed to the onset of winter, which led to a decline in air-conditioning demand. Petrol sales of the three state-owned firms fell by 1.4% compared to the previous year, while diesel demand dropped by 7.8%. Despite this, petrol consumption in December 2023 was 7.1% higher than in December 2021 and 21.5% higher than in December 2019.
Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, totaled 18.64 million tonnes, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.