India: Pet coke sales by oil companies rise 24% y-o-y in Apr-Dec’21

Petroleum (pet) coke sales of major Indian oil companies rose sharply by 24% y-o-y to 6.1 million tonnes (mnt) in Apr-Dec’21, CoalMint data showed. Sales of IOCL were the highest at 1.9 mnt, up 5% y-o-y.

This includes all grades of pet coke including non-calcined fuel grade pet coke of high sulphur and anode grade pet coke of low sulphur and calcined pet coke (CPC).

*Quantity in mn t

(Source: Oil companies’ data)

In Dec’21 alone, domestic sale of all grades of pet coke recorded a negative growth on a y-o-y basis. It was also lower by 32% since the pre-Covid levels of Dec’19 and is likely to take a few more months to cross the level.

Notably, calcined pet coke sales by Numaligarh RefineryLimited (NRL) were nil in Dec’21 as its operations closed down. On a cumulative basis for the period Apr-Dec’21, its CPC sales declined by 41% y-o-y to 0.05 mnt. Generally, the refinery uses raw petroleum coke to the tune of 75-80% to produce CPC, while the rest is sold to calciners.

Nayara Energy, during Dec’21, recorded the highest growth of 47.7% due to the low base of last year as it touched the pre-Covid level sales of 0.2 mnt per month.

Percentage share of oil companies for Apr-Dec’21

*Quantity in mnt

It is observed that in Apr-Dec’21, the highest market share in domestic sales of pet coke was retained by IOCL at 32% followed by Nayara Energy at 26%.

RIL’s share stood at 10%. Despite being the country’s largest pet coke producer, a sharp rise in its sales were capped last year as it released very less quantity in the market due to maximum consumption at its own  gasification unit.

The maximum negative growth was registered in case of IOCL with a 6% y-o-y fall amid its reduced operations last year.

State-wise sales

Rajasthan continues to be the leader amongst all the states where the domestic sale is the highest for the period Apr-Dec’21 rising by 60% y-o-y to 1.3 mnt. This is mainly due to the concentration of various cement plants in the state owned by companies like UltraTech, ACC, Ambuja Cement, etc which are major consumers of pet coke, sourcing primarily from domestic producers.