India’s public and private sector refiners turned 3.2 per cent less crude oil into fuel in October year-on-year.
The drop in refinery output was because of shutdowns for maintenance, according to the provisional data released by the Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas.
The country’s refining capacity has increased by 68.87 per cent from 2004-05 to 215 million tonne per annum as on April 1, 2013. It is further projected to go up to 264.966 million tonne by 2015-16.
The data included revised crude processing figures for August and September of Reliance Industries' second refinery at Jamnagar, which is an export-focused plant. It also includes prorated figures for October.
Reliance's two refineries at Jamnagar account for about 30 per cent of the country's refining capacity. The first refinery at Jamnagar processed 5.2 per cent more crude oil in October year-on-year, and the production from the export focused refinery was up 1.3 per cent in October annually.
Domestic refiners (17 public sector, 2 joint venture, 3 private sector) together imported 5.3 per cent less crude oil in October at 15.625 million tonne against the same month last fiscal. India is world’s fourth largest energy consumer.
The country’s domestic oil production was down 0.8 per cent in October year-on-year, while the natural gas output continued its declining trend falling 13.6 per cent annually.
Consumption
After falling for four consecutive months this fiscal, the petroleum products consumption in the country rose by about one per cent. Consumption in October was 13.097 million tonne year-on-year, according to the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell.
Diesel, the most sold petroleum production saw a 1.47 per cent drop in consumption in October year-on-year at 5.616 million tonne. A combination of factors such as improved power situation, shift of industrial consumers to other fuels due to dual price, falling demand for diesel vehicles, and increasing fuel prices, are responsible for lower diesel consumption.
Petrol, however, saw a 10.5 per cent increase in consumption in October to 1.462 million tonnes.