The crude oil processed by domestic refineries in Sept’21 was recorded at 18.21 million tonnes (mnt),an increase of 2.9% as against 17.71mnt in the same month last year.
Crude processing indicates the overall performance of the country’s petroleum companies.
Notably, the total crude oil processed by Indian refineries during FY’20 was 254.4 mnt against the total crude oil processing capacity of 250mnt as on 1 Apr’20. The total crude processing during FY’21 was 221.8mnt, resulting in a drop of 13% due to Covid-19.
On a cumulative basis, the crude processed during Apr-Sept’21 is recorded as 113.29mnt as against 100.17mnt seen in the same period last year, thus registering a double-digit growth of 13.1%.
Notably, crude processing has recorded a very high growth in the beginning of FY’22, in during Apr’21, due to the lower base of Apr’20which resulted due to stringent lockdown restrictions imposed by the government to contain the pandemic. In subsequent months, the growth has moderated.
There has been consistent recovery in crude processing but it still fell short as compared to pre-Covid levels. The crude processing in Sept’21 is lower by almost 6.2% as compared to Sept’19. Also, the cumulative crude processing for Apr-Sept’21 is lower by 9.9% as compared to Apr-Sept’19.
Notably, crude processing has consistently surpassed every month in FY’22 as compared to the same months over Apr-Sept’21. However, it has never crossed the pre-Covid levels of the respective months. With the present trend in recovery, it may take some more months for crude processing to reach pre-Covid levels on a monthly basis.
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