Refineries capacity utilisation increases

Refinery capacity utilisation is trekking high in the back-drop of growing oil demand in the country. According to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas, the percentage utilisation of refineries in public sector was 106.8 in October 2005, compared to 98.3 per cent in the same month last year. While PSUs control 17 refineries in the country, the remaining one is with Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL) refinery in Jamnagar.

The latest data of the ministry shows petroleum refining sector has grown 1.3 per cent in November, compared to 1 per cent in last year November.

The installed refining capacity in the public sector is 80.17 lakh tonne per month, but the output in October 2005 touched 85.63 lakh tonne. Among it, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Koyali refinery was the topper with a production of 10.92 lakh tonne, thus the percentage utilisation was 93.8.

The capacity utilisation was the highest in the refinery of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) in Mumbai, which stood at 169.6 percentage in October.

The refinery has 5.86 lakh tonne installed capacity but the production was 9.94 lakh tonne. Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) Mumbai refinery capacity utilisation was 130.6 per cent in October 2005.

"Capacity utilisation is growing above 100 per cent, owing to the market demand in India. Most of the refineries are increasing the capacity, but that will not be sufficient for the future. If the work-load increases further, the life of the refinery can be affected," industry sources said.

"During October, the RPL refinery had shut down for a while for the maintenance. Thus the government had asked the public sector refineries in Mumbai to increase the production to meet the demand," sources added.

IOC Guwahati, IOC Mathura, IOC Digboi, IOC Panipat, Kochin Refinery, Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Assam, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals and ONGC Tatipaka have utilised the capacity more than 100 per cent in October.

Capacity utilisation in September 2005 was 99 per cent in the public sector, compared to 93.2 per cent in the same month last year.

Jamnagar refinery had 104.6 per cent utilisation in September 2005. In April- October 2005, public sector refineries refined 53.942 million tonne(MT), as compared to 53.825 MT last year.