Mumbai (Platts)--25Jan2013/621 am EST/1121 GMT

Indian refiners in the public and private sector processed around 15.54 million mt of crude, or an average of 3.67 million b/d, in December 2012, up a marginal 1% from 15.38 million mt in November, preliminary statistics released by the oil ministry on Thursday showed.

The throughput was 5% higher than the previous year's 14.81 million mt, the data showed.

The average utilization rate in December was 103.3% compared with 105.7% in November and 109% in the corresponding month of 2011. The data excludes throughput at Reliance Industries Limited's 29 million mt/year (580,000 b/d) Jamnagar refinery on the west coast, which began production in early 2009.

State-owned IOC, the largest refiner, operated its plants at an average run rate of 104%, processing 4.79 million mt of crude, marginally higher than 4.76 million mt in November, but 2.8% lower from 4.93 million mt a year earlier.

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Crude throughput at both its 15 million mt/year Panipat refinery in North India and 2.35 million mt/year Bongaigaon refinery in the northeast was lower than planned targets tracking the crude oil available to them, the ministry note said.

IOC has a total refinery capacity of 54.2 million mt/year across eight refineries.

India's second largest state-owned refiner, Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd, saw crude throughput fall marginally to 2.32 million mt in December from 2.34 million mt in November, but rise 12.6% from 2.06 million mt in December 2011.

Hindustan Petroleum Corp. Limited's crude throughput was up 21% at 1.55 million mt from 1.28 million mt in November, and up 22% from 1.27 million mt a year earlier.

RIL processed around 2.76 million mt in December, down 6.7% from 2.96 million mt in November, and 5.8% lower than the 2.93 million mt processed in the corresponding month a year ago at its older 33 million mt/year (660,000 b/d) plant in Jamnagar, running its refinery at a run rate of 98.5%. The processing rate in December was 652,606 b/d.

With RIL's second 29 million mt/year refinery in Jamnagar's Special Economic Zone, it has a total installed capacity of 1.24 million b/d.

Essar Oil, another private refiner, lifted its capacity from 280,000 b/d last year to 360,000 b/d in April and 400,000 b/d in June by completing an optimization plan at its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat. It processed 1.73 million mt of crude oil in December, 3% higher than 1.68 million mt in November, and jumping 35% from 1.28 million mt in December 2011.

--M.C. Vaijayanthi, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by E Shailaja Nair, shailaja_nair@platts.com

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