Crude oil production 2.8% below target

The country's crude oil production in August was 2.8 per cent less than the target of 2.95 million tonne (mt), primarily on the back of government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) falling below their targets.

However, on a year-on-year basis, production at 2.87 mt was higher by 6.4 per cent over the 2.70 mt produced in August 2006.

ONGC's production at 2.17 mt was 5.3 per cent below the target of 2.29 mt. It was however, 5.7 per cent higher over the 2.05 mt produced in August 2006. OIL's production during August this year was 10.9 per cent below its target and 2.2 per cent below the production in the year-ago period.

Crude oil production by private companies and other joint ventures was a whopping 19.1 per cent higher than the target of 0.36 mt. It was also higher than by 16.2 per cent over the production in August 2006.

Natural gas production at 2.69 billion cubic metres (bcm) during the month under review also fell 4.9 per cent short of the target of 2.82 bcm. Production on a year-on-year basis was higher by a whopping 36.8 per cent in August 2007 over the 1.96 bcm produced in August 2006.

The high rise over August 2006 was because flooding at ONGC's gas processing plant at Hazira in Gujarat had resulted in gas output falling by 25.1 per cent to 1.95 bcm over the same month of the previous year.

ONGC's gas production in August was higher by 1.6 per cent over its target for the month and 38.4 per cent higher as compared with the same month last year.

OIL's production dipped 19.5 per cent below its target and also 2.6 per cent below the production recorded in August 2006.

Private sector joint ventures production also fell 17.4 per cent below targets.

Indian refiners processed 13.09 mt crude oil in August, up 8.2 per cent from 12.10 mt in the year ago period. Refining in August was up 6.2 per cent over the month's target of 12.32 mt.

The year-on-year rise in refinery production was due to the commissioning of Essar Oil's 10.5 mt per year Vadinar refinery in November last year, and expansion of Indian Oil Corporation's Panipat refinery to 12 mt in January.

The country's refineries ran at 103.8 per cent of their capacity in August compared with 107.6 per cent a year earlier.