Indian refiners' October oil processing highest since March
11/26/2020
Crude oil processed by Indian refiners rose to its highest in seven months in October as fuel demand picked up although throughput remained lower than a year earlier, hurt by the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on industrial and transport activity.
Crude oil throughput in October dropped 16.1% from a year earlier to 4.35 million bpd (18.39 million tons), but was the highest since March when the country went into a nationwide lockdown, provisional data issued by the government showed on Wednesday.
Pointing to a recovery in economic activity, India’s fuel consumption registered its first year-on-year increase since February last month, data showed earlier.
Daily coronavirus cases in the country have declined steadily since having peaked in September, although it remains the second-highest number of cases in the world, after the United States.
Crude oil throughput in October rose 0.5% from September’s 4.33 MMbpd (17.71 million tons).
Indian refiners operated at an average rate of 86.7%, highest March, compared to 86.2% in September, data showed.
A major maintenance shutdown at Nayara Energy’s 400,000 bpd Vadinar refinery pulled down the nation’s average refinery run rates. Nayara’s plant operated at 33% capacity last month, the data showed.
The country’s largest refiner, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) operated its directly owned plants at 95.64% capacity, the data showed.
Reliance, owner of the world’s biggest refining complex, operated its plants at 94.33% capacity.
Crude oil production fell by 6.2% to 2.57 million tons (608,000 bpd), the monthly report showed.
Reporting by Anjishnu Mondol and Sumita Layek in Bengaluru, additional reporting by Brijesh Patel; Editing by Bernadette Baum
From the Archive