The fuel that’s thriving amid the world’s biggest lockdown
As more than 1.3 billion Indians are forced to stay home and factories are idled amid the world’s biggest coronavirus lockdown, there’s one fuel that’s proving resilient to the resulting plunge in energy demand.
Liquefied petroleum gas — used for cooking at home in India and other Asian countries — has avoided the collapse in consumption that’s hit petrol and diesel. It’s also benefiting as authorities stock up on supplies for lower-income people, while production of LPG — a byproduct of oil refining — is falling as processors wind down activities to cope with lower overall demand for fuels.
India’s three biggest state-owned refiners projected a 40% jump in demand for the gas in the first week of April from a year earlier, according to company officials who asked not to be identified, compared with 70% slumps for diesel and gasoline. The processors — Indian Oil Corp., Bharat Petroleum Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp. — have cut run rates by as much as half due to the lockdown, which has been extended until May 3.
