India’s fuel consumption rose to a seven-month high in December to about 20.054 million metric tons (mmt), data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the oil ministry showed. Total consumption, a proxy for oil demand, in December rose by 6.2% from 18.89 million tons (mt) in November, data showed. It was up around 2.6% compared with the same period a year earlier.

Sales of diesel, mainly used by trucks and commercially-run passenger vehicles, rose by 0.9% month-on-month to 7.6 (mt). Sales of petrol in December slipped 4.5% from the previous month to 2.99 (mt).

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, rose by 12.9% from November, while fuel oil use increased by 9.6% in December. Cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas sales rose by 5.6% to 2.63 (mt), while naphtha sales jumped by 27.9% to about 1.33 (mt), the data showed.