(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)
