Indian refiners’ October crude processing up over 11%

Indian refiners’ crude oil throughput in October rose from the previous month, government data showed on Tuesday, in tandem with a jump in fuel consumption to the highest in seven months.

Refiners processed 4.96 million barrels per day (bpd) (20.96 million tonnes) last month, up 11.5% from 4.45 million bpd in September, the data showed. On a year-on-year basis, throughput in October rose 14%.

India will release 5 million barrels of oil from its strategic reserves in coordination with other buyers including the United States, China, Japan and South Korea, a government statement said on Tuesday.

India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, has been raising concerns over rising oil prices and wants the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting countries and its allies led by Russia (OPEC+) to quicken the pace of increasing output.

In October, crude oil production fell about 2.3% to around 590,000 bpd (2.51 million tonnes) from the same month last year, and edged down slightly from September, the data showed.

“Crude oil production was down partly due to natural decline and partly due to some technical delays,” Refinitiv analyst Ehsan Ul Haq said.

Indian refiners operated at an average rate of 98.76% of capacity in October, up from 88.69% in September, the government data showed.

Meanwhile, compared to October 2020, natural gas output jumped 24.7% to 3.02 billion cubic metres, but was still lower than the targeted production of 3.33 billion cubic metres, data showed.

“Natural gas production was lower than the target, which is especially concerning due to high global gas prices. It will make India more dependent on imports at a time when it is putting some financial pressure on the country’s budget,” Ul Haq said.

Source: Reuters