Indian Oil reports flat crude throughput volumes in 2014-15;

The flat growth in crude throughout last fiscal comes amid a major hit to gross refining margins

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), the nation's largest petroleum refiner and retailer, has reported almost flat crude throughout volumes in 2014-15.

The company said in a release its crude processing stood at 53.61 million tonne (MT) last fiscal, a marginal 0.9 per cent increase over 53.10 MT achieved in 2013-14 according to oil ministry's data.

The company also informed it is targeting crude processing of 55 MT in the current financial year (2015-16), a 2.5 per cent increase over 2014-15 volumes. "IndianOil Refineries have targeted to process 55 MT crude during the new fiscal year 2015-16. The state-of-the-art Paradip Refinery will be added to IndianOil Group," the company said in a release, adding the information was shared by Director-Refineries Sanjiv Singh in his address to the employees of the Division.

Singh also said IOC refineries will get their share of opportunities to realize increased Gross refinery Margins (GRMs) and overall profitability and that IOC will have the advantage of having a "cluster" of refineries. The company said IOC refineries achieved a capacity utilization of 98.9 per cent to yield a crude throughput of 53.61 MT, despite a few shut-downs for improvement. "Shut-downs are part of the process but we need to plan well-execute well' in order to stick to our turn around schedule," the release quoted Singh as saying.

IOC's crude processing volume has declined consistently from 55.6 MT in 2011-12 to 54.8 MT in 2012-13 and further to 53.1 MT in 2013-14. IOC's eight refineries - Panipat, KoyaIi, Mathura, Barauni, Haldia, Guwahati, Digboi and Bangaigaon - accounted for 54.2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) or 25 per cent of India's total crude oil refining capacity of 215.1 MTPA at the end of March 2014. Of the rest, Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) contributed 27 MTPA while Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) accounted for 23 MTPA.

The flat growth in crude throughout last fiscal (2014-15) comes amid a major hit to Gross Refining Margins primarily owing to inventory valuation losses from the historic decline in global crude oil prices since June 2014. The average GRM of IOC's eight refineries stood at a negative $2.66 per barrel in the nine months ended December 2014 as compared to $4.97 per barrel in the corresponding period in 2013-14.