Indian refiners’ May crude processing rises y/y, but supply risks loom

(Reuters) – Crude oil throughput by Indian refiners rose in May from a relatively low base last year, but concerns loomed over supply amid rapid demand growth in the world’s third biggest oil consumer.

Indian refiners’ crude oil throughput in May rose about 19% year-on-year to 5.34 million barrels per day (22.64 million tonnes), provisional government data showed on Friday.

Natural gas output rose 6.4% year on year to 2.91 billion cubic metres, while overall crude production increased 4.5% to about 623,000 barrels per day (2.55 million tonnes), the data showed.

Preliminary data released on Wednesday showed demand rose at a rapid pace in the first two weeks of June, as concerns grew over supply. The government played down the concerns, saying unprecedented demand growth has created some temporary logistics issues in more remote places.

Data last week showed India’s fuel consumption jumped about 23.8% in May.

Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq said the uptick in production was merely a recovery, following a “number of production delays earlier this year” while COVID-19 hampered production last year.

May crude production by Oil India Ltd was about 4% less than the target, Friday’s release from the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said, attributing the dip to ‘Less than planned contribution’ from oil wells and “local disturbance and miscreants activities in main producing area.”

But the recovery may be short-lived as production problems persist, compounded by mature oilfields and the lack of drilling while India’s dependence on foreign oil increases, with “the trend unlikely to be reversed,” Ul Haq added.

Russia became India’s second biggest supplier of oil in May, pushing Saudi Arabia into third place but still behind Iraq which remains No. 1, data from trade sources showed earlier this week.

REFINERY PRODUCTION IN TERMS OF CRUDE THROUGHPUT (in ‘000 tonnes):

May-2022 May-2022 May-2021 April-May 2022 April-May 2021

Plan Actual Actual Actual Actual

IOC, Guwahati 88 94 0 184 62

IOC, Barauni 375 584 533 1,135 1,003

IOC, Gujarat 1,145 1,359 1,045 2,677 2,042

IOC, Haldia 713 712 624 1,419 1,320

IOC, Mathura 837 813 692 1,618 1,511

IOC, Digboi 59 62 61 120 118

IOC, Panipat 1,364 1,253 1,156 2,425 2,477

IOC, Bongaigaon 219 183 227 392 452

IOC, Paradip 1,333 1,363 1,045 2,690 2,377

BPCL, Mumbai 1,260 1,257 1,174 2,558 2,399

BPCL, Kochi 1,400 1,432 910 2,746 2,274

BORL, Bina 700 676 519 1,360 1,166

HPCL, Mumbai 771 844 119 1,576 160

HPCL, Visakh 695 803 737 1,600 1,563

CPCL, Manali 930 1,005 629 1,910 1,389

NRL, Numaligarh 245 275 226 546 447

MRPL, Mangalore 1,250 1,415 961 2,896 2,061

ONGC, Tatipaka 3 7 7 13 14

HMEL, Bhatinda 980 1,111 1,102 2,151 2,161

RIL, Jamnagar 2,837 3,124 2,837 6,158 5,610

RIL, SEZ 2,678 2,547 2,678 4,664 4,927

Nayara, Vadinar 1,692 1,726 1,692 3,385 3,325

TOTAL 21,574 22,644 18,974 44,224 38,859

Source: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

IOC: Indian Oil Corp

BPCL: Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd

HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd

CPCL: Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd

MRPL: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd

Reliance Industries Ltd

Please note that CPCL’s CBR refinery is de-commissioned under shutdown due to limitation in meeting required product specifications with the existing configuration.

CRUDE OUTPUT (‘000 tonnes):

May-2022 May-2022 May-2021

Plan Actual Actual

ONGC

Andhra Pradesh 16 16 11

Assam $ 85 84 84

Gujarat 381 386 370

Tamil Nadu 22 23 25

Offshore # 1,108 1,184 1,063

OIL

Assam, Arunachal Pradesh & Rajasthan (heavy oil) 276 265 253

Private Operators 601 591 631

Total 2,489 2,550 2,438

Total may not tally because some numbers have been rounded.

ONGC: Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd

OIL: Oil India Ltd

$ : Includes oil output of Tripura

# : Includes oil output from Mumbai High

(Reporting by Eileen Soreng, Rahul Paswan and Arpan Varghese in Bengaluru; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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