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% 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.
