Sales of petroleum products and liquid biofuels, April 2005, preliminary figures

The sale of auto diesel showed a rather large increase in April of 18 per cent, and ended on a total sale of 199 million litres. This large increase is related to the modest sale in March, and is caused by the relatively early Easter holidays this year. At the same time, the sale of motor gasoline showed a 6.4 per cent decrease in April, while the March figures only revealed a relatively small reduction. In general the Easter holidays will show an increase in the sale of motor gasoline relative to the sale of auto diesel. This is due to increased private motoring and simultaneously decreased professional motoring. The four first months of 2005 shows an increased sale of auto diesel of 5.4 per cent, while the sale of motor gasoline has decreased by 4.6 per cent.

Reduced sales of heating products

Total sale of heating products decreased by 20.2 per cent, in April compared with April last year. This corresponds to a reduction of 11 million litres. The sales of lighting and heating kerosene and light heating oils came to a total of 43 million litres. The sale of heavy fuel oil showed a slight decrease of 4.6 per cent, and came to a total of 48 million litres. This reduction in the sale of heating products is a continuation of the development in the first quarter of 2005.

The four first months of 2005 shows a 25.9 per cent decrease in the total sale of heating products, while the sale of heavy fuel oil has increased by 2.7 per cent.

There were 21 delivery days in April this year, against 19 in April 2004.

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