Thailand’s petrol consumption up by 9%

The Thai government’s first-car incentive program has pushed up petrol consumption by nearly 9% compared with the normal growth rate of 2-3%, while sales of gasohol E20, gasoline blended with 20% ethanol, surged by 210%.
Veerapol Jirapradiskul, director-general of the Department of Energy Business, said petrol consumption increased by 22.5 million liters per day, with most of the increase accounted for by gasohol, which surged to 20.2 million liters a day. Sales of E20 reached 2.6 million liters a day, which led to a 94% rise in ethanol consumption to 2.5 million liters per day. Diesel consumption increased by 4% to 59.6 million liters a day.
The increase in fuel use is largely due to 2012’s first-car tax-incentive program, which pushed vehicle sales over a million units.
The Department of Energy Business has asked oil refineries to avoid simultaneous maintenance shutdowns that could lead to a shortage of petrol. Thailand imports 20 million to 30 million liters of petrol per month, Veerapol said.
Thailand’s total ethanol output currently exceeds 4 million liters per day versus demand of about 2.5 million liters a day, but this is expected to rise to 3 million liters by the end of 2013.
The consumption of natural gas for vehicles in the first half of 2013 was about 8.4 million kilograms a day, up by only 11% because of a shortage of NGV stations. PTT plans to set up more NGV service stations in Bangkok and the surrounding areas, and on major routes nationwide by 2015. As a short-term remedy, the volume of NGV supplied by pipeline has been increased.
Meanwhile, consumption of liquefied petroleum gas in the first half of 2013 averaged 614,000 tons per month, up 4.1%, with the transport sector accounting for most of the growth at 141,000 tons per month, up 59%.
The government is tightening loopholes to tackle illegal use of household LPG by the transport sector.
Even though the government will revise the price for LPG for households on September 1, consumption is unlikely to change, as the government will subsidize cooking gas prices for low-income consumers.
As for the transport sector, LPG usage is not expected to rise as much as in the past after the price increase in September, and consumption levels are approaching a peak. In June, there were 1,604 LPG service stations, up from 1,075 stations in the same month last year, Veerapol added.
(July 31, 2013)