India's overall fuel consumption contracted by 2.8% in August compared with the same month in 2025, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell of the oil ministry reported. Total fuel use for the month stood at 18.61 million metric tons, with the government body using the fuel consumption figure as a proxy for broader oil demand in the country.
Within the monthly breakdown, gasoline and diesel moved in opposite directions to the headline trend. Gasoline sales rose 8.2% year-on-year to 3.84 million metric tons in August, while diesel consumption increased 6.8% to 7.02 million metric tons over the same period.
By contrast, liquefied petroleum gas, commonly used in households for cooking, registered a marked decline. LPG sales in August fell 17.2% from the prior-year month to 2.35 million metric tons. Naphtha, a feedstock often used in petrochemical processes, also decreased sharply, with sales down 22.3% to 0.83 million metric tons during the month.
The data showed divergent movements among other fuel categories. Bitumen, the binder used in road construction, recorded a strong increase of 19.8% in August. Fuel oil consumption also rose, up 4.8% for the month.
These figures present a mixed picture: while total fuel consumption edged lower on a year-on-year basis, key transport fuels - gasoline and diesel - posted growth. At the same time, fuels tied to household cooking and certain petrochemical feedstocks fell noticeably, and construction-related bitumen saw an uptick.
No additional causation or external drivers were provided alongside the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell's monthly dataset, leaving interpretation of the underlying reasons for the shifts open. The dataset itself remains the immediate source for the month-by-month and product-level changes summarized here.
Bottom line: India's aggregate fuel use declined 2.8% in August year-on-year to 18.61 million metric tons, with gasoline and diesel rising while LPG and naphtha fell, and bitumen and fuel oil posting increases.