Indian Oil Corp (IOC)’s online auction of RPC (Raw Petroleum Coke) from its Assam based Guwahati refinery was suspended due to intervention by the Gauhati High Court on a civil writ petition filed by calciners in protest to fixation of higher reserve price ex-Guwahati refinery as compared to other refineries in the State.
Nevertheless, auctions for selling of RPC produced at other refineries – Barauni (Bihar), Bongaigaon (Assam), Digboi (Assam) & Koyali (Gujarat) – were conducted initially on 10 May’19 for consumers within the respective States.
As per the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOP&NG) guidelines, this e-auction sale was made available on “AS IS WHERE IS BASIS” from Refineries, and was restricted only to end-users producing Calcined Petroleum Coke and/or other products using RPC in their plant/units located in the states of Assam, Bihar and Gujarat.
The high court order dated 30 May’19 observed, “While it is true that reserve price of RPC is variable and dependent on various factors, but taking a reasonable and pragmatic view, court is of the opinion that in spite of such variation, the pricing range of RPC in the four refineries should not be so diverse as to make the whole process look quite arbitrary. These refineries produce more or less similar quality of RPC.”
It further stated, “If the reserve price of RPC at Digboi refinery was INR 19,220/MT and that of Bongaigaon refinery was INR 19,810/MT in the last auction, it defies all logic as to why reserve price of RPC of Guwahati refinery should be fixed at the high price of INR 27,020/MT.”
In so far as Numaligarh Refinery is concerned, it had earlier fixed price at INR 28,300/MT but after the Guwahati court order, the reserve price was reduced by INR 7,000/MT and fixed at INR 21,300/MT.
The court had directed to reconsider the reserve price of RPC for the immediate e-auction to ensure that it is more or less at par with other refineries of the State.
In order dated 12 Jun’19, it was also mentioned that reserve price of Guwahati refinery was revised to INR 24,150/MT and e-auction was conducted on 7 Jun’19. The next hearing has been fixed in Jul’19.
Notably, IOC had started the price differential for Guwahati refinery few months ago and the gap increased in subsequent auctions. This wide gap has led the customers to file the above writ petition.
Subsequently, in line with the court direction, reserve price at Guwahati refinery was reduced to moderate the price differential and auction was conducted.
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