By Nidhi Verma
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – Indian refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp’s use of Russian oil fell to 34% of the total intake for crude processing in the July-September quarter due to a maintenance shutdown of units at its Bina and Kochi refineries, its finance head said on Monday.
The state-run company, which can process about 706,000 barrels per day (bpd) at its three refineries in India, met about 40% of its oil needs with Russian supplies in the June quarter, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta told an analysts’ call.
BPCL mainly processes Russian oil at its 156,000-bpd Bina refinery in central India and the 310,000-bpd Kochi refinery in southern Kerala state.
Gupta said discounts on Russian oil, sold on delivered basis to BPCL, averaged $3 per barrel in the September quarter, similar to April-June.
India’s crude oil imports from Russia rose by 11.7% to about 1.9 million bpd in September, accounting for about two-fifths of the nation’s overall crude imports in the month, tanker data obtained from industry sources showed earlier in October.
Gupta added that BPCL expects annual capital expenditure of about 180 billion-200 billion rupees ($2.14 billion-$2.38 billion) in the next two financial years.
He said in the current financial year to March, BPCL’s capex will be less than the planned 164 billion rupees due to lower spending on its city gas business.
In 2027-28 BPCL’s capex would rise significantly as it builds new projects, leading to increased borrowing.
“At that point project financing will go up and borrowings will go up,” Gupta told the call.
BPCL has announced plans to raise its refining capacity to 900,000 bpd and build two new petrochemical projects at the Kochi and Bina refineries.
BPCL, the country’s second-biggest fuel retailer, sees India’s gasoline demand rising by 6% this fiscal year to March and diesel demand rising by 1.5%.
($1 = 84.0480 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Helen Popper)
