Indian refiners are raising their run rates thanks to an uptick in domestic demand for oil products ahead of the end of the year. They have also increased purchases of West African low-sulfur crude and Middle Eastern medium sour grades as anticipation for higher gasoline and diesel demand in the October-December quarter during the upcoming festive season and when coronavirus-related restrictions are expected to ease.
India’s largest state refiner IOCL ran its refineries at 90% of capacity in October thanks to improving transportation fuel demand except for jet fuel. Company officials said processing demand for gasoline and diesel regained their pre-pandemic levels in late October. India’s demand for gasoline reached a seven-month high of 2.45 million tons in September. Meanwhile, India’s gasoil consumption increased by 13.2% from August to 5.49 million tons.
Meanwhile, BPCL maintained its operating rate at 86% in October. The company expects to reach a full capacity by the April-June quarter of 2021. MRPL planned to keep operating rate at 60%-70% of capacity in the near-term due to poor middle distillate margins. It planned to raise the rate to 75%-80% in October but pushed it back to the fourth quarter.
