Consumption of petrol products in the DR is increasing, riding on the economic boom. El Caribe reports that from January to May, consumption reached a record 2.9 million barrels of regular gasoline, or 11% more than last year. Premium gasoline sales declined 6.3%, relative to the January-April 1999 period, reflecting the availability of lower cost regular non-leaded gasoline. Avtur, or airplane fuel sales, were up 18.5%. Gasoil sales, principally used by trucks and for power plants, was up 43.3% for regular and 78.2% for premium in the first five months of the year. This reflects the increase in consumption by power plants, as power outages intensified during the first five months of the year. Fuel oil, used by large power plants that are part of the nationwide system, consumed 13.4% more fuel in the first five months of the year.
