India’s fuel demand makes shaky start to 2021

Indian energy demand got off to a shaky start in the new year with sales of transport and cooking fuels over the first two weeks of 2021 declining from a month earlier.

The sale of diesel, the country’s most-used fuel and a proxy for economic health, dropped during by 6.6% January 1-15 from the same period in December and 3.5% from a year earlier, according to people familiar with preliminary data from the country’s three biggest retailers. Sales of gasoline, jet fuel, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) also declined month-on-month.

Motor fuel sales, however, were still 8.5% higher from a year earlier, with people favouring the use of personal vehicles to avoid public transport as the nation struggles to contain the covid-19 pandemic. LPG, used for cooking and heating, also posted a year-on-year gain amid plunging temperatures.