# How much diesel do Indian Railways and shipping companies buy direct from oil companies, and is it falling?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/indian-railways-diesel-bought-direct-from-oil-companies

The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) Ready Reckoner shows 12,132 thousand tonnes of diesel sold direct in 2025-26, 12.8 percent of all diesel. Railways took 9 percent of that, down from 11 percent the year before, and shipping 7 percent in both years.

## What the chart prints

The Ready Reckoner splits high speed diesel (HSD) into retail and direct sales. Our reading: direct sales are bulk sales to large buyers; the chart text does not define the term. The two years side by side, in thousand tonnes:

- Total HSD: 94,708 in 2025-26 and 91,407 in 2024-25.
- Direct sales: 12,132 and 11,317, which is 12.8 percent and 12.4 percent of the total. The book's own text rounds this to 13 percent.
- Direct sales by sector, 2025-26 then 2024-25: miscellaneous 34 and 31, road transport 19 and 20, mining and quarrying 13 and 14, manufacturing 12 and 11, railways 9 and 11, shipping 7 and 7, agriculture 4 and 4, power generation 2 and 2 percent.

## From percentages to tonnes

The shares are whole percentages, so each tonnage is a range. Railways: 9 percent of 12,132 is about 1,092 thousand tonnes (1,031 to 1,153 if the true share was 8.5 to 9.5 percent). A year earlier 11 percent of 11,317 is about 1,245 (1,188 to 1,301). Every rounding case is lower in 2025-26, so the fall is real, roughly an eighth on the printed shares.

Shipping: 7 percent of 12,132 is about 849 thousand tonnes, against about 792 a year earlier. The share is flat and the tonnes slightly higher, within rounding.

## Do not mix this with the end-use survey

The same book has an older survey table that puts railways at 2.10 percent of all diesel (October 2020 to September 2021). The direct-sales figure above is 1,092 / 94,708, about 1.15 percent of all diesel. The two measure different things: one covers retail and direct sales in an older year, the other covers direct sales only in 2025-26. The book does not reconcile them and does not say why railway direct buying fell. Do not quote either as the railways' total diesel.

## What it means if you ship by rail or sea

The railway's or the shipping line's diesel is theirs. It reaches your footprint only through the freight factor you apply to your tonne-km, or through a figure the carrier gives you. Ask for the carrier's own intensity before using a default.

## Railway direct diesel as carbon dioxide (CO2), an estimate and not a railway figure

- Railway share: 9 percent x 12,132 = about 1,092 thousand tonnes
- PPAC conversion: 1 tonne of diesel = 1.2100 kilolitres at 29.5 degrees Celsius; x 0.9879 for 15 degrees Celsius = 1,195 litres
- Litres: 1,092,000 x 1,195 = about 1,305 million litres
- CO2: 1,305 million x 2.645 kg = about 3.45 million tonnes (3.26 to 3.64 across the rounding range)

Diesel at 2.645 kg CO2 per litre is combustion only. It covers only the direct-sale diesel the chart attributes to railways, not electric traction and not retail diesel. It is our arithmetic on rounded shares. PPAC's density (about 0.837 at 15 degrees Celsius) and the 0.83 density behind 2.645 differ slightly, by under 1 percent.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records. It does not read railway or shipping line fuel data. For a rail or sea leg you pay for, use the freight figures the carrier gives you.

- [Railway receipt and freight emissions](https://senseible.earth/answers/railway-receipt-freight-emissions)
- [Rail against road freight in India](https://senseible.earth/answers/rail-vs-road-freight-emissions-india)
- [Coastal shipping against road](https://senseible.earth/answers/coastal-shipping-vs-road-emissions-india)
- [Litres in a tonne of diesel](https://senseible.earth/answers/litres-in-a-tonne-of-diesel-india)

Sources: [Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, PPAC Ready Reckoner, year 2025-26](https://ppac.gov.in/download.php?file=rep_studies/1784899305_The_PPAC_Ready_Reckoner_FY_2025%E2%80%9326_Final.pdf)

Last reviewed 2026-11-05. Shares are read from the PPAC chart (sector-wise HSD consumption, 2025-26 and 2024-25); tonnages, ranges and the CO2 figure are our arithmetic on rounded shares. PPAC gives no reason for the change.