Fuel demand in India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, typically falls during the four-month monsoon season beginning in June as parts of the country are hit by heavy floods.

Gasoil demand in July fell by about 16% to 6.42 million tonnes while gasoline demand fell by about 8% to 2.66 million tonnes, the data showed.

"Monsoon rains along with high inflation had hit truck mobility and demand for goods in the country. Truck mobility was down by about 15%-20% in July," said S.P. Singh, senior fellow at the Indian Foundation for Transport Research and Training.

Monsoon rains also affected demand from the agriculture sector as farmers use gasoil-fired gensets for irrigation.

Gasoil accounts for about two-fifths of India's overall refined fuel consumption and is directly linked to industrial activity in Asia's third-largest economy.

State retailers Indian Oil Corp, Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd own about 90% of the country's retail fuel outlets.

Below is a table of India's preliminary fuel sales data with volumes in thousand tonnes.

Refined Fuel July % chg % chg % chg vs

2022 from June yr/yr July 2020

Gasoline 2661.9 -8.02 12.2 31.3

Gasoil 6422.1 -15.95 17.7 32.4

Jet Fuel 533.6 -4.25 79.0 137.4

Liquefied 2465.5 5.22 4.14 8.4

Petroleum Gas

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; editing by Jason Neely)

By Nidhi Verma