Petrol consumption up 4.5 per cent, diesel down 7.3 per cent in November

Braving the pandemic, consumption of petrol has increased by 4.5 per cent in the month of November, while that of diesel was seen 7.3 per cent down.

The consumption of petrol was seen at 1,939 TMT till November 26 this year, as against 1,855 TMT during November 2019. On the other hand, diesel demand was seen down at 5,106 TMT, as compared to 5,505 TMT in the month of November last year for the three oil marketing companies -- Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL). This is compared to a 4.5 per cent increase in the consumption of petrol and 7.4 per cent in diesel in the month of October, as compared to the same period in 2019, based on data available with the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell.

This comes at a time when fuel prices have been rising in the last ten days. The prices of petrol was seen at Rs 82.13 a litre and diesel at Rs 72.13 in Delhi on Saturday. When asked about this, an IOC official said, Indian Oil Corporation has reduced the petrol price by Rs 0.97 a litre and diesel price by Rs 2.93 a litre at Delhi in the month of September 2020 and in the month of October there was no price revision for petrol, whereas price of diesel was reduced by Rs. 0.17 a litre in Delhi. He cites the relatively stable crude oil price in October as a reason for not revising the price in October.

"Considering relatively stable crude oil and petroleum product prices, no price revision was carried out in petrol and diesel from November 1 to 19, 2020. However, since then significant uptrend was seen in crude oil prices in the international market," he said

The Indian basket crude oil touched $ 47.41 a barrel on November 26 as against average crude oil prices of $ 41 a barrel in the first fortnight of November this year. This rise was mainly due to expectations that Covid-19 vaccine will boost crude oil demand. Sentiments were also bolstered by the expectation that OPEC+ would extend trade deal to restrain output. Further, uncertainties around the US Presidential election were also settled.