New Delhi, Jul 18 (IANS): The consumption of natural gas in India went up 7.1 per cent in June to 5,594 million metric standard cubic metres (MMSCM), this year compared to the same month last year, as more households across the country are using the fuel for cooking; the demand is also rising in the urban transport segment, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

While there was an increase of 2.9 per cent in domestic gas production to 2,993 MMSCM during the month, which helped to meet the rising demand, imports went up by as much as 11.3 per cent during the month.

The gas companies have been expanding their network to meet the rising demand for the green fuel.

For the April-June quarter, the increase in natural gas consumption works out to 3.8 per cent compared to the same period of the previous year year-on-year. Domestic production rose 5.7 per cent while imports edged up by 0.6 per cent during the quarter.

Consumption of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and jet fuel went up by 2.6 per cent in June to 20 million metric tonnes (MMT).

For the April-June period, the growth in consumption was 3.4 per cent. There was an 11.4 per cent increase in consumption of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as airlines have been expanding operations to cater to the growing air passenger traffic in the country. The consumption of petrol rose 7.1 per cent during the month, while diesel sales increased by 1.6 per cent and LPG sales went up by 5 per cent, the figures showed.

Crude oil imports fell 5.6 per cent year-on-year to 18.5 million metric tons in June, but the import bill rose by 11 per cent to $11.1 billion during the month due to higher prices in the international market that surged past the $82 per barrel mark during the month. This had also prompted the government to raise the windfall tax on crude oil levied on domestic companies ONGC and Oil India Ltd.