India’s oil demand worsened in the first half of May as large parts of the nation remained under local lockdowns to battle the world’s worst outbreak of Covid-19.
Sales of road transport fuels during May 1-15 dropped by a fifth from the previous month and about 28 per cent from the same period in 2019, according to people familiar with preliminary data from the country’s three biggest retailers.
Average daily sales of gasoline — used in cars and motorcycles — fell to about 53,300 tons, the lowest in a year. Sale of diesel — the country’s most-used fuel and a proxy for economic health — dropped to a seven-month low of 147,300 tons a day during May 1-15.
