The oil industry expects fuel demand to start limping back to the pre-Covid period from this month with the relaxation in lockdown and increased movement of vehicles across the country.
Analysts said a change in lifestyle would lead to people preferring personal vehicles to public transport, which would spur fuel demand and boost vehicle sales.
The fuel demand had crashed 70 per cent in April and started to pick up in May.
Sources said the demand would ramp up to about 70 per cent to 80 per cent of the pre-Covid level in the next three months.
They said Indian Oil’s refineries plan to raise their capacity utilisation rate to 80 per cent to meet demand. Other state-owned refiners, BPCL and HPCL, are also drawing up plans to boost capacity.
