IOC Announces Pet Coke Auction from Various Refineries

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOC) has announced auctions of RPC (Raw Petroleum Coke) from its various refineries on 1 Jul’19 for consumers within the State; wherein the total quantity offered is 74,995 MT.

Refinery-wise detailed breakups of quantities offered in the auctions are enumerated as follows:

In case if some quantity is left over, auction will be conducted for consumers outside State on 2 Jul’19. This is in line with the terms and conditions of the auction set by IOC according to guidelines from MOP&NG (Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas).

The quantity for outside state consumers will be intimated by MSTC on 1 Jul’19 after completion of within State auctions.

The delivery period for Barauni and Bongaigaon refineries, for within State consumers will be from 2 Jul’19 to 15 Aug’19 and for outside State consumers from 3 Jul’19 to 16 Aug’19. The delivery period for Koyali refinery for within State consumers will be from 2 Jul’19 to 16 Jul’19 and for outside State consumers from 3 Jul’19 to 17 Jul’19.

Notably, there is no quantity on offer from Digboi and Guwahati refineries. This is mainly due to the reason that a separate auction was conducted for Digboi on 31 May’19, and a minuscule quantity was sold in the earlier auction. A separate auction was also conducted for Guwahati refinery on 7 Jun’19, after getting clearance from Guwahati High Court. It has already been reported that some consumers had complained to court due to steep increase in reserve price for Guwahati refinery as compared to other refineries in the state.

It is to be noted that there have been some changes made in this auction, viz. it is being conducted on a single date and time for four refineries. Normally, there used to be auction for maximum two refineries at the same time. Further auction timing has been also changed to 08:00 hrs – 10:00 hrs i.e. before normal office hours. Besides these changes in conducting auction, delivery period ex-Koyali has been also reduced from earlier 45 days (which is applicable to other refineries) to 15 days, considering rake-loading facility.

These changes may lead to inconvenience to some consumers who have multiple units for which they would be required to bid for the four refineries together. Some consumers may also not be comfortable with the timing. It is gathered from the market participants that some consumers may represent against these changes, which is expected to cause inconvenience to them.