India's September oil product exports rise

India's oil product exports in September rose from the previous month with higher exports of diesel, while crude imports were unchanged, preliminary data from Vortexa showed.

Products shipments totalled 1.46mn b/d last month, up from 1.31mn b/d in August. Exports of clean petroleum products — including gasoil, gasoline, naphtha and jet fuel — were 1.4mn b/d, up from 1.28mn b/d in August. Shipments of dirty products such as bitumen and fuel oil increased to 61,000 b/d from the previous month's 30,000 b/d.

Diesel/gasoil exports rose to 706,000 b/d last month from 598,000 b/d in August, as domestic consumption fell from the previous month and from pre-pandemic 2019 because of higher retail prices and a monsoon-induced fall in trucking activity.

But finished gasoline exports fell to 223,000 b/d in September from the previous month's 228,000 b/d as demand continued to surpass pre-Covid-19 levels , even though retail prices were holding close to record highs.

The country exported 87,000 b/d of jet fuel last month, up from August's 84,000 b/d, with higher fob Singapore prices and increasing domestic consumption . But demand was still lower compared with 2019.

India imported 3.92mn b/d of crude and condensate in September, which was mostly unchanged from the previous month, despite lower run rates at most of the state-controlled refineries and a turnaround at MRPL's 300,000 b/d Mangalore refinery .

Most of the state-controlled refiners were operating at lower capacity likely because of the disparity in motor fuel demand, market participants told Argus. IOC and Hindustan Petroleum had also emerged to buy gasoline cargoes through rare tenders, while the former continued to export diesel.

India imports about 84pc pf its crude need with most of it coming from the Middle East , which accounted for 1.99mn b/d of the total imports, down from 2.49mn b/d in August.

Ports close to refineries owned by private-sector companies imported 2.18mn b/d of the total, up from 1.88mn in August .

Sikka on India's west coast, where Reliance Industries operates the 1.24mn b/d Jamnagar refinery complex, saw the single-largest quantity of crude discharge last month at 1.37mn b/d. The second-largest quantity of about 814,000 b/d was delivered to Vadinar port, where Russian-owned Nayara Energy operates a 400,000 b/d refinery.

By Sathya Narayanan

Crude imports by India ports (mn b/d) September August Sikka 1.4 1.2 Vadinar 0.8 0.7 Paradip 0.5 0.5 Kochi 0.3 0.3 Mundra 0.3 0.4 Mumbai 0.2 0.3 New Mangalore 0.1 0.2 Visakhapatnam 0.1 0.1 Chennai 0.1 0.1 Source: Vortexa

India crude imports (b/d)

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