NEW DELHI: India, perhaps for the first time, imported petrol and diesel from China as the world’s third largest oil consumer looks at diversifying its sources of fuel.
India imported 18,000 tons of petrol and 39,000 tons of diesel in the first nine months of the current fiscal, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said.
“Although overall production of petrol and diesel is in excess of domestic consumption, due to specific product requirements, some quantity of petrol and diesel are imported,” he said.
Pradhan said India had not imported any petrol or diesel from China in last four years.
During April-December 2016, India produced 27.1 million tons of petrol against a consumption of 17.96 million tons. In case of diesel, the production stood at 76.55 million tons in comparison to 57.24 million tons. India imported 8,20,000 tons of diesel and 4,76,000 tons of petrol in April-December, he said.
Pradhan said in the first nine months of the current fiscal, the UAE toppled Singapore to become the India’s biggest supplier of petrol at 2,43,000 tons. Singapore supplied 1,69,000 tons of petrol.
The UEA was also the top supplier of diesel at 3,80,000 tons.
In 2015-16 full fiscal, Singapore had supplied 6,41,000 tons of petrol while the UAE had sold 1,83,000 tons of petrol and 1,22,000 tons of diesel.
India has capacity to refining crude oil and produce fuel in excess of its demand against an installed refining capacity of 230.1 million tons, while the total fuel demand in 2015-16 was 184.7 million tons. In April-January period of 2016-17, the fuel demand stood at 161.4 million tons as compared to refineries producing 202 million tons of fuel.
However, India is 80 per cent dependent on imports to meet raw material, crude oil needs. Its domestic production was under 37 million tons in 2015-16 and 30.1 million tons in April-January 2016-17.
