Thai fuel consumption rose by 15.4% year-on-year during the first 10 months of 2022 as the pandemic eased, driven by an upsurge in jet fuel demand, says the Department of Energy Business.
The amount of consumed fuel rose to 150 million litres per day (MLD), up from 130 MLD in the same period last year.
From January to October, demand for most types of fuel rose, except for costly kerosene, which decreased as people shifted to cheaper fuels, said Nanthika Thangsupanich, director-general of the department.
The government started reopening the country in late 2021, relaxed air travel restrictions, and downgraded Covid-19 from a "dangerous communicable disease" to a "communicable disease under surveillance" in October this year.
Jet fuel consumption saw the highest growth of 88.2%, to 8.2 MLD, up from 4.3 MLD in the same period last year, said Ms Nanthika.
Demand for gasoline and gasohol, a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, rose by 5% year-on-year to 29.8 MLD from 28.4 MLD last year.
Diesel consumption increased by 3.6% year-on-year to 72.2 MLD from 60.8 MLD.
Use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) grew by 7.8% year-on-year to 17.8 MLD.
Demand for compressed natural gas increased by 9.7% year-on-year to 3,390 tonnes per day.
Fuel oil consumption also rose by 18.5% year-on-year to 6.37 MLD.
Demand for kerosene fell by 10.9% to 0.015 MLD.
On the international trade front, imports of crude oil, LPG and refined oil rose by 14.6% year-on-year to 1.01 million barrels per day, up from 885 kilo-barrels per day (KBD) in the same period last year.
The export of refined oil declined by 18.9% year-on-year to 162 KBD, down from 199 KBD in the same period in 2021.
Thai fuel consumption has increased in lockstep with greater economic activity following the lifting of lockdown measures, said Ms Nanthika.
The consumption of jet fuel (8.2 MLD) and gasoline and gasohol (29.8 MLD) was still lower than the 17 MLD of jet fuel and 31.7 MLD of gasoline and gasohol consumed in the first 10 months of 2019, according to data compiled by the Bangkok Post.
The average consumption of diesel, LPG and compressed natural gas exceeded levels recorded in January 2020, just before Thailand was affected by Covid-19 outbreaks.
