Fuel consumption in Thailand rose 0.9% year-on-year to 152 million litres per day during the first 11 months of last year, driven by price caps and the tourism recovery, according to the Department of Energy Business.
Authorities capped the prices of gasoline, gasohol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to ease the financial burden for households and businesses.
Demand for gasoline and gasohol, a mix of gasoline and ethanol, rose by 3.7% in the period to 31.5 million litres per day, following a decrease in excise tax rates and a price subsidy from the Oil Fuel Fund, said Nanthika Thangsupanich, the director-general of the department.
The price controls run until the end of this month.
LPG consumption increased by 0.6% year-on-year to 17.8 million kilogrammes per day as authorities continued to fix the retail price at 423 baht per 15kg cylinder. The price cap expired on Dec 31 but has been extended to the end of March.
Officials are continuing to keep the domestic diesel price below 30 baht a litre until March 31, but diesel consumption dropped by 5.2% to 68.8 litres per day. The decline was attributed to high use of diesel to replace liquefied natural gas (LNG) for power generation in 2022, when LNG prices spiked after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Consumption of jet fuel showed the highest growth, at 55% to 13.5 litres per day, as the steady recovery of tourism continued.
Fuel oil demand declined by 15.2% to 5.41 litres per day. Compressed natural gas (CNG) use dropped by 1.5% to 3,340 tonnes per day because of the one-baht increase in its retail price to 19.59 baht per kg, set by the country's sole CNG seller PTT Plc.
From January to November last year, imports of crude oil, LPG and refined oil rose by 5.7% year-on-year to 1.049 million barrels per day (bpd), with the value dropping by 13.9% to 97.3 billion baht due to lower global crude oil prices.
Refined oil exports rose 12.5% to 178,232 bpd, with the export value decreasing by 7.7% to 18.8 billion baht.