India's growing economy to fuel oil demand: Opec

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) has projected that a rise in India’s gross domestic product (GDP) would lead to increased oil consumption next year. India oil demand was not affected by the economic crisis in 2009, and next year’s oil usage is forecast to grow further. All sectors are seeking more energy and new vehicle registrations are expected to continue the fast growth of 2009. These factors would push up oil demand by 15 per cent, making it the fastest growing product in terms percentage rise, Opec said.
The organisation in its monthly oil market report for December said Indian oil consumption was not affected during 2009 due to a number of factors such as strong GDP growth, low prices of transport fuel and a boom in new car registrations.

Improved economic activity, the rise in new vehicle registrations, festival season have pushed up oil demand by 19 per cent in October.

Diesel consumption grew on increased demand from industry and agriculture. The demand for other industrial fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas also increased. As a result of the strong transport and industrial fuel demand, October oil demand in the country grew 12 per cent, or 0.3 million barrel per day (mb/d) compared with October 2008. The country’s oil demand is forecast to grow by 0.14 mb/d y-o-y in 2009 averaging 3.0 mb/d. Considering better-than-expected Asian oil consumption, Other Asia oil demand growth was revised up slightly by 50 tb/d to average 9.5 mb/d in 2009.

Opec noted even as various world economies were affected by the recession, the Indian economy grew 7.9 per cent at factor cost in the July-September quarter of 2009, compared with 6.1 per cent in the preceding quarter.

Business Standard