According to Yahoo!Asia News :
NEW DELHI, Feb 26 (Reuters) – India’s fuel demand jumped 7.3 percent in January from a year ago, led by naphtha and diesel, extending a period of rapid demand growth in Asia’s third-largest consumer, official data showed on Monday.
Sale of refined oil products, a proxy for oil demand, rose to 10.46 million tonnes, the data showed.
The growth came a month after India’s first reduction in domestic fuel prices and just ahead of its second, pushed through two weeks ago to combat inflation at a two-year high. Pump prices of petrol have fallen by 4.5 percent and diesel by 3.2 percent.
Diesel sales, which account for nearly a third of consumption, rose 8.2 percent in January from a year earlier to 3.71 million tonnes (900,000 barrels per day).
But oil demand was also fuelled by growing industrial use of feedstock naphtha, as fertiliser firms and some power plants struggled to get enough cheaper natural gas. Domestic naphtha sales surged 28 percent, their third double-digit rise in a row.
“Higher consumption by petrochemical plants and the restarting of the Dabhol power plant have added to naphtha growth,” said a government source.
India has been importing naphtha to run the Dabhol project in the western state of Maharashtra, which was fired up in October after demand for its power picked up.
Despite the increase in consumption, however, the data showed an unexpected trebling in naphtha exports to 1.3 million tonnes for January, although this was partly offset by imports, which rose by nearly 154 percent to 476,900 tonnes.
“Higher naphtha imports resulted in more domestic surplus available for exports,” said the oil ministry official, who did not wish to be identified.
“(Gas) scarcity appears to have extended into January, since one of the main source of LNG imports, Qatar’s RasGas 2 plant, declared force majeure … and deferred two cargo loadings contracted by India’s Petronet,” said an International Energy Agency report.
Motor fuel sales also rose due to a court ruling banning the overloading of trucks, forcing more vehicles on to the roads.
“High GDP growth especially in manufacturing sector is also reflected in the petroleum product sales,” the official said.
EXPORT RISE
Oil product exports in January rose 173 percent to 6.1 million tonnes, driven by naphtha and jet fuel.
Fitch in its outlook for the Indian oil and gas sector for 2007 has said, “with the increase in refining capacity in 2006, domestic overcapacity will country, leading to higher exports.”
India forecast an increase in oil product exports to 93 million tonnes in 2012 from 21.5 million tonnes in 2005/06.
Oil product imports rose by 21.7 percent to 1.2 million tonnes, mainly due to diesel and naphtha imports.
Reliance Industries Ltd. , Indian Petrochemical Corp. Ltd. and Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. have imported over 1.2 million tonnes of naphtha this year.
Crude oil imports during January rose 0.7 percent to 9.08 million tonnes. India imports nearly 70 percent of its total crude oil requirement in a year.
- What can we say….India is one of the highest populated countries next to China…and soon will join the ranks of USA and China to be one of the highest user of fossil fuel!! Great! Higher demand will boost the price of oil and gas…considering the situation in Iran currently…the price might just get higher…?
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