With three fourth of FY16 over, the picture of petroleum sales in the country for FY16 is becoming clearer. Petroleum product consumption in the ongoing fiscal year has remained buoyant due to favourable prices in general amid growing demand.

For 9MFY16, the consumption of major petroleum products like petrol, diesel and furnace oil almost touched 16 million tons (15.96 million MT), depicting an increase of 4.4 percent over 9MFY15. While furnace oil witnessed a decline in volumes during the nine-month period, it was motor gasoline (petrol) volumes that were the key growth driver; furnace oil sales were down by six percent year-on-year, while petrol sales by the oil marketing companies accelerated at 25.8 percent rate during the period. HSD sales remained resilient with a growth rate of four percent, year-on-year.

A similar pattern can be seen in petroleum product imports; where furnace oil imports were lower by around six percent year-on-year for 8MFY16, petrol imports rose by 42 percent year-on-year. This generous rise in petrol imports and overall petrol consumption in the country has been due to increased usage in the domestic transport in the absence /shortage of CNG.

The trend has been similar for March 2016 where furnace oil has shown a 12 percent year-on-year decline, and petrol volumes have shown increase of 38 percent year-on-year. A downturn in furnace oil volumes has been observed over the months. This has been primarily due to lower furnace oil consumption in power generation and heightened use of imported LNG.