Sales of petroleum products and liquid biofuels, April 2002, preliminary figures

The deliveries of heavy fuel oil to ships in ocean transport have been low since September 2001, with deliveries less than 17 million litres per month, which is 8 million litres less per month than the average in the period 1997-2001. The remaining sale of heavy fuel oil goes mostly to the manufacturing industry, and also this sale showed low figures for April. The deliveries to the manufacturing industry may among other things depend on prices of electricity and oil. Low electricity prices in April may explain the decline. The total deliveries of heavy fuel oil for the past 12 months went down by 5.9 per cent. The deliveries to the manufacturing industry rose by 28.7 per cent whereas deliveries to ships in ocean transport fell by 4.4 per cent in this period.

Increased deliveries of auto diesel

The deliveries of auto diesel were 16.9 per cent higher in April this year than in April last year, and the tax-free diesel increased the most. The rise in April might be a result of Easter coming earlier this year, and more delivery days than in April last year. For the past 12 months, the total deliveries of auto diesel rose by 4.1 per cent.

Total deliveries went down

The total deliveries of petroleum products were 673 million litres in April, 4.7 per cent less than in April last year. During the past 12 months the deliveries came to 9 188 million litres, a slight increase compared with the previous 12-month period.

There were 21 delivery days in April 2002 against 17 in April 2001.

Tables:

• Table 1 Deliveries of petroleum products. Million litres. Preliminary figures
• Table 2 Deliveries of petroleum products, by group of purchasers. Million litres. Preliminary figures
• Table 3 Deliveries of petroleum products, by county. Million litres. Preliminary figures