Johannesburg - Petroleum sales were declining as consumers were finding ways of using liquid fuels more efficiently, petroleum producers said yesterday.
Consumers were paying about R1,5 billion more a month for petrol, diesel and paraffin than they were this time last year, said Colin McClelland, the director of the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia).
Because of the large price increases caused by crude oil prices, which had more than doubled during the past year, major petroleum product sales had dropped by 1,9 percent to 5,144 billion litres in the second quarter, compared with 5,244 billion litres recorded the previous year.
This compares with an increase in sales of 1,1 percent for the second quarter of 1999 over sales in the second quarter of 1998.
The first half of 2000 showed a slight decline of 0,3 percent to 10,336 billion litres against 10,370 billion litres in the first half of 1999.
McClelland said petrol sales, which accounted for half of total sales, had declined by 3,3 percent at the end of the period under review.
Diesel sales, which were crucial for agricultural and commercial purposes, had grown by 2,6 percent.
Jet fuel sales had plunged by 4,6 percent, breaking a long upward trend, while sales of illuminating paraffin, which millions use for cooking, heating, lighting and refrigeration, had plunged by 16 percent to 237 million litres against 282 million litres reported last year.
"This decline in the sales of paraffin indicates a further reduction in the practice of using paraffin in place of diesel to evade fuel taxation," McClelland explained, adding that this decline reinforced a trend that began in the third quarter of 1999.
He said prices of petrol, diesel and paraffin had risen by some R1 a litre since early last year, with petrol now selling at R3,60 a litre.
Since 1994, the annual consumption of petroleum products has risen marginally, from 18,2 billion litres to 21,2 billion litres.