INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Diesel sales declined by 0.8% to 6.03 million tonnes in September.Domestic monthly diesel consumption fell for the first time in 10 months
year-on-year in September, while petrol sales grew by the least in four months as record high pump prices dented demand, government data
showed on Friday.Lower local sales of petrol and diesel curbed growth in overall fuel demand to 1.1 percent in September, despite higher
sales of liquefied petroleum gas and jet fuel.Domestic fuel consumption, a proxy for oil demand, totalled 16.54 million tonnes in September,
a decline of about 1.3 percent from August, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed.A sharp
fall in the value of the rupee and soaring oil prices led to record high pump prices of diesel and petrol, forcing the government to cut
taxes on them and asking retailers to cut marketing margins by 1 rupee a litre.Diesel sales, which account for about 40 percent of refined
fuels used in the country, declined by 0.8 percent to 6.03 million tonnes in September, the data showed.Growth in sales of gasoline, widely
used for transportation, eased to 4.2 percent to 2.23 million tonnes from the same month last year, as demand for passenger vehicles fell
5.6 percent in September from a year ago."It may have some price impact but we need to analyse that last month growth in petrol and diesel
sales were impacted as (in) September 2017 there was a robust growth," said M
Surana, Chairman of Hindustan Petroleum Corp.INDUSTRIAL SLOWDOWNLower consumption of diesel also indicates slowing industrial activity, as
it is used in industries and mining.Industrial output in August grew 4.3 percent from a year earlier, compared to the downwardly revised 6.5
percent year-on-year increase in July.Although overall monsoon rains were below average, floods in parts of the country restricted mobility
and hit demand from farmers who use diesel-fuelled generators to power pumps for wells."Seasonally it is not a high demand period," Senthil
Kumaran, senior oil analyst at FGE, said, adding that the worst is over for fuel buyers in term of prices as the government might cut taxes
further."We see a marginal impact of pricing in September sales but going forward from now to until March we expect the government to
2018(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
