India’s petro demand grew 3.1 per cent to 107.4 million tonnes in 2003-04 on pick up in diesel consumption in the second half of the year.

Diesel demand, an indicator of the state of economy, grew 1.6 per cent to 37.2 million tonnes as against 36.6 million tonnes consumed last year, Petroleum Secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI at New Delhi.

"Domestic demand is growing. After a slack period, the demand has picked up on growth in the economy. If economy continues to grow at the current pace, we expect petroleum product consumption to rise by close to 4 per cent in 2004-05," he said.

India consumed 104.1 million tonnes of petroleum products in 2002-03.

Petrol demand rose 5 per cent to 7.9 million tonnes (7.6 million tonnes in the previous year) but naphtha consumption fell 2.5 per cent to 11.66 million tonnes in 2003-04 (11.96 million tonnes).

LPG consumption continued to grow by more than 10 per cent at 9.3 million tonnes as opposed to 8.3 million tonnes a year ago.

Chaturvedi said increased activity in road construction saw bitumen demand rise by 13.2 per cent to 3.4 million tonnes in 2003-04 as compared to 2.98 million tonnes previous year.

India’s crude oil imports, he said, is likely to touch 100 million tonnes this fiscal from 90.7 million tonnes imported in 2003-04 for Rs 83,714 crore (18.2 billion dollars).

The country imported 81.99 million tonnes of crude in 2002-03 for Rs 76,195 crore (15.76 billion dollars).