Petrol sales on a year’s high in September; diesel sales at 93% of pre-Covid mark

NEW DELHI: Petrol consumption shot past pre-Covid levels and diesel sales stood just 7% short of the year-ago level in September, after doddering through previous two months, indicating the economy may finally be coming out of lockdown slumber.
Simultaneously, a 13% growth in the consolidated output of India’s largest generation utility, NTPC group, in the July-September quarter further underlined a rebound in economic activity.
No wonder Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, chairman of India’s largest fuel retailer IndianOil, is expecting to run his company’s refineries at full steam soon. “It’s a matter of time. Petrol and diesel (consumption) are near-normal. State transport services are coming back. ATF (jet fuel) will take some time… So if we can convert the ATF into petrochemicals, which we can and are doing, our refinery operations should be back at 90-100% by December,” he told TOI.