The industrial sector experienced a decline in consumption of gas and posted a negative growth of 6.8 per cent during the period under review when compared to the same period last year. – File photo

ISLAMABAD: The overall consumption of petroleum products in the country has touched 13,879 million tonnes mark during last nine months as compared to 13,802 million tonnes in corresponding period of previous year.

The consumption posted a positive growth of 0.6 per cent, said a data available with this agency.

It said agriculture sector witnessed 40.8 per cent decline followed by the government sector with 20.3 per cent. Similarly, power sector and household sector had also shown negative growth in the consumption of petroleum products for the period under discussion, posting – 5.2 per cent and -8 per cent respectively.

The data said although petroleum products considered as necessary inputs of the power sector, yet the negative growth in power as well as household sector can be attributed to changes in demand behavior toward relatively cheaper alternatives.

The industry sector had shown positive growth of 24.2 per cent in the consumption of petroleum products during the period when compared with previous year, mainly due to recovery in economic activity.

The data said transport sector usually consumes high quantity of petroleum products but surprisingly this sector showed a relative small growth of 3.5 per cent during the period under consideration.

Meanwhile, when contacted, an official source on Sunday said since oil is the more expensive fuel because of Pakistan’s imports at the high international prices the share of oil consumption declined by 3 per centage points during the period under review.

The consumption of petroleum products showed a continuous declining trend since 2001-02, he said and added however, due to positive changes in years 2004-05, 2007-08 and 2009-10, the overall average for last ten years became positive 1.1 per cent per annum.

With regard to share of gas consumption, the official said it stood at the highest equal to 43.2 per cent of the total energy mix of the country, followed by oil with 29 per cent.

The industrial sector experienced a decline in consumption of gas and posted a negative growth of 6.8 per cent during the period under review when compared to the same period last year.

The transport sectors is the most significant sector, posting a positive growth in gas consumption of 14.2 per cent during 2010-11 as compared with 2009-10 and a positive growth of 10.8 per cent during last nine months.