Demand for fuel drops as more people staying home
The Department of Energy Business has said that the daily usage of fuel in the past seven months has fallen by 13.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
Nantika Thansuphanich, the department’s director general, said the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 was the main factor behind this drop in fuel demand.
She said the daily usage of gasohol had fallen by 4.9 per cent to 29.6 million litres a day, while the use of benzine fuel had dropped by 19.6 per cent to just 800,000 litres daily.
The use of fuel in the diesel family had dropped by 4.5 per cent to 65.4 million litres daily.
The demand for jet fuel has also dropped to around 9 million litres a day, falling 53.5 per cent compared to the same period last year due to the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand’s measures controlling arrivals and departures.
As for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas vehicle (NGV), Nantika said the daily usage has fallen to 14.9 million litres and 3.8 million litres respectively, marking a 16.8 per cent and 31.7 per cent drop.
Subsequently, she said, fuel imports during the period had fallen 9.6 per cent to 912,987 barrels a day, though the export of refined oil in the past seven months had risen to 197,551 barrels a day or 16.6 per cent. The exports include benzene, diesel, fuel oil, jet fuel, kerosene and LPG.