India’s petroleum consumption increased to 231 million tonnes in 2023, up from 219 million tonnes in 2022, according to the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Consumption was severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic but has mostly recovered.
It was only 6 million tonnes below the pre-pandemic trend for 2015-2019 last year.
India and China both experienced compound annual growth in consumption of around 3.5% between 2012 and 2022, compared with just 0.5% per year in the rest of the world.
China’s consumption started the 2010s almost three times larger than India’s, so similar percentage growth rates have translated into much larger absolute increases in the number of tonnes used.
As China’s rapid deployment of electric vehicles curbs further consumption growth, India’s absolute increases will draw level and then take the lead later this decade.
India’s share of global oil consumption already rose to more than 5% in 2022, up from 4% in 2021 and 3% in 2002.
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