Mirroring the state of Indian economy, petroleum product consumption rose 1.8 per cent to 82.48 million tonnes in the first 11 months of the current fiscal as opposed to 81.05 million tonnes sales in the same period last year.
Diesel consumption inched 0.9 per cent to 33.6 million tonnes in April-February as against 33.28 million tonnes in the corresponding period the previous fiscal, official sources said.
Petrol sales jumped 9.4 per cent to 6.96 million tones while aviation turbine fuel consumption was higher at 2.09 million tonnes as against 2.04 million tonnes of April-February 2001-02.
LPG consumption was up 11.2 per cent to 7.44 million tonnes as compared to 6.69 million tonnes in the first 11 months of the last financial year. However, kerosene sales fell 4.3 per cent to 8.88 million tonnes in April-February from 9.27 million tonnes the previous year.
Naphtha/NGL sales too declined 9.1 per cent to 6.80 million tonnes ah dropped from 6.47 million tonnes last year to 6.28 million tonnes this fiscal.
Lubricant and greases' consumption jumped 20.7 per cent to 829,100 tonnes in April-February as opposed to 687,200 tonnes in the same period the previous year.
While diesel sales in retail rose 2.6 per cent to 26.46 million tonnes during the period under review, direct or bulk sales (mostly to industrial consumers) fell 4.9 per cent to 7.13 million tonnes.
The trend was also observed in petrol where retail sales rose 10 per cent to 6.84 million tonnes but direct or bulk sales fell 16 per cent to 126,400 tonnes.
Bitumen consumption was 17.5 per cent higher at 2.44 million tonnes in April-February when compared to 2.07 million tonnes of the corresponding period the previous year.
Light diesel oil sales also increased 21 per cent to 1.32 million tonnes in the reference period.