New Delhi: India imported 60.2 million tonne (MT) more crude oil in the first quarter of FY23 than the same period the previous year as refineries increased processing to satisfy increased domestic demand for petroleum products, particularly diesel. During same time, exports of petroleum products also increased by 7.2 percent.

Due to more expensive petroleum, imports increased by 89 percent in value terms to $47.5 billion in the first quarter of FY23. India is heavily dependent on crude imports and its 85% crude comes through imports. India imported 212 MT of crude oil at a total cost of $120.4 billion in FY22.

In the months of April to June, domestic output of crude oil, including condensate, was constant at 7.45 MT, only 0.62 percent higher than during the same time previous year.

Domestic refiners processed 65.8 MT of crude during the months of April through June of the current fiscal year, 14.8 percent more than they did during the same time period of the previous fiscal, according to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), an attached office of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

With an increase in diesel consumption from 18.4 MT in Q1FY22 to 22.2 MT in April–June 2022, the consumption of petroleum products increased by 16.8% between that time and the previous year, reaching 55.1 MT from 47.2 MT.

When compared to the same time in the previous fiscal, petroleum product imports increased by 21.6 percent to 10.7 MT in the first quarter of the current fiscal. On the other hand, exports also went up, by 7.2 percent, to 16.3 MT.