India lockdown: Jet fuel consumption slumps to 5-year low on COVID-19 impact

India's jet fuel consumption in March fell 29.86% month on month to 484,000 mt, the lowest in over five years, amid demand destruction on account of a nationwide lockdown, which was further extended Tuesday, latest data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell showed.

Jet fuel consumption in India was last lowest in February 2015 at 455,000 mt, PPAC data showed.

Industry sources attributed the slump in jet fuel consumption to the coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed 358 lives and infected 10,453 people so far in India, the latest research by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine showed.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a three-week lockdown on March 25. On Tuesday, Modi extended the nationwide lockdown until May 3 to further curb the coronavirus outbreak.

"There's no demand for gasoil or jet [in India] now ... We will have to see the impact of exports," a Singapore-based trader said.

The ongoing lockdown in India has resulted in the stoppage of flights in the country, which has led to a supply glut, while demand for air travel dwindled to a drip. This resulted in sellers offering jet fuel at a steep discount to entice buying interest.

India's Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd. sold 40,000 mt of jet fuel for loading over April 19-21 at a steep discount of around minus $4-$4.50/b to the Mean of Platts Singapore jet fuel/kerosene assessments and the Mean of Argus Asia Pacific jet kerosene assessments, FOB, S&P Global Platts reported.

Meanwhile, India's state-owned refiners sought to reduce run rates to combat lower output for refined products.

India's No. 1 state-run refiner Indian Oil Corp., for instance, reduced its crude throughput to half of the normal run rate at its nine refineries, down further from the 30% cut it had made earlier, Platts reported earlier.

Bharat Petroleum Corp. was also heard to have reduced run rates to 65% as domestic demand for oil products fell, Platts had reported.

Market sources said the demand slump in refined products would persist as a result of the extended lockdown until early May.

Separately, the country's kerosene consumption in March fell 17.84% month on month to 152,000 mt, PPAC data showed.