India's crude oil imports up 23% on fuel demand

Refiners see demand for fuel, especially diesel, rising as electioneering picks up for the April-May LS polls

India's crude oil imports surged 23% in February as demand for fuel rose with electioneering for the Lok Sabha polls picking up.

The world's third-biggest crude oil importer bought 16.42 million tons of oil from overseas last month, up from 13.37 million tons a year earlier, according to oil ministry data.

Refiners see demand for fuel, especially diesel, rising as electioneering picks up for the April-May Lok Sabha polls.

Fuel demand in February rose 2.4% to 12.836 million tons. Sales of diesel, the most consumed fuel in the country, were flat at 5.38 million tons, after dipping in the previous two months.

Demand for diesel has declined in all but three months of the current financial year.

The data showed India imported 1.41 million tons of petroleum products such as LPG in February. India, which has a surplus refining capacity, is short on cooking gas production and imported 629,000 tons of LPG last month.

Exports rose to 5.2 million tons from 4.56 million tons in February 2013. India exported 2.02 million tons of diesel in February, up from 1.51 million tons in the same month a year ago.

It shipped 1.21 million tons of petrol overseas (1.07 million tons last fiscal) and 455,000 tons of jet fuel or ATF (467,000 tons previous year).

Petrol consumption in February rose to 1.379 million tons from 1.278 million tons a year ago. Consumption of LPG, where the government has restricted the supply of subsidised cylinders, rose to 1.4 million tons from 1.3 million tons in February 2013.

ATF consumption at 447,000 tons in February was higher than 428,000 tons in the same period last fiscal, the data showed.