India's domestic crude oil production drops in May, imports surge. Details here

India's domestic crude oil production declined 1.1% year-on-year in May 2024, even as imports rose by 5.6% during the month.

The total indigenous production totalled to 2.5 million metric tonnes (MMT), as compared to around 2.3 MMT in May 2023, as per the data released by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC).

Among the major contributors towards the domestic production were Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), which led with 1.6 MMT of production, followed by Oil India with 0.3 MMT output.

Production sharing contracts and revenue sharing contracts accounted for 0.6 MMT of the total production.

Crude processing jumps

While domestic oil production declined, crude processing marked an uptick during the month under review. The overall processing capacity jumped to 23 MMT, which was 1.3% higher as compared to May 2023, the data showed.

This included 15.7 MMT of crude processed by the public sector undertaking (PSU) and joint venture (JV) refiners. The processing of crude by private sector refiners stood at 7.3 MMT.

Out of the total processed crude, only 2.3 MMT was indigenously produced, whereas 20.7 MMT of crude was imported.

Crude oil import surges

International trade figures released on June 21 showed India's crude oil imports rising by 5.6% in May 2024, as compared to the same month a year ago.

In absolute terms, the crude imports during the month rose to a 5.1 million barrels per day (bpd). Russia accounted for the highest share of imports, at 2.1 million bpd.

With this, Russia's share in overall oil imports increased to 41%, news agency Reuters reported, citing the data it collated from shipping firms.

The Russian crude imports, at 2.1 million bpd, grew by 5.9% as compared to May 2023.

Meanwhile, the crude oil shipped from Saudi Arabia dropped to 508,500 bpd, which was the lowest from the country in the last 10 months.