Fuel demand recovery continues in August, diesel sales 8% less than pre-Covid level

NEW DELHI: India’s fuel demand recovery continued in August as sales of the nation’s most used fuel, diesel, inched towards pre-Covid levels on easing of pandemic-related restrictions, preliminary sales data showed on Monday.

Petrol sales are already above pre-Covid levels and diesel is 8 per cent short.

State-owned fuel retailers sold 0.98 million tonnes of petrol in the first half of August, up 9.4 per cent from the year-earlier period. It was 3.7 per cent higher than pre-Covid petrol sales of 0.95 million tonnes in August 1-15, 2019.

Sales of diesel – the most used fuel in the country – rose 18.5 per cent to 2.11 million tonnes during August 1-15, 2021 over the previous year, but was down 7.9 per cent from August 2019.