Oil output may grow 4.8% in FY10: CMIE

The country’s oil output may shoot up by 4.8 per cent to reach 36.14 million tonnes in the next fiscal driven by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) resuming crude oil production from its KG D6 wells coupled with capacity addition by other private and joint venture firms, says a report.

“We expect the growth in crude oil production to pace up in the following months. In 2009-10, we expect domestic crude oil production to grow by 4.8 per cent to 36.14 million tonnes,” the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said in its February 2009 review.

The growth in production is expected to be largely driven by private and joint venture companies, it said.

Mukesh Ambani-led RIL resumed crude production from its eastern offshore KG basin block earlier this month, after an equipment failure led to a three-month shutdown.

The company first began pumping oil in September 2008.

RIL started production with 5,000 barrels a day from this basin and claims to produce around 40,000 barrels a day by March 2009, the CMIE said.

“Further, the capacity addition by Cairn India and ONGC in 2009-10 are expected to contribute to the healthy growth in crude oil production,” it added.

The CMIE, however, revised downward its crude output figures for the current fiscal ending March 31.

“We expect crude oil production to decline by 0.5 per cent to 34 million tonnes in 2008-09 from our earlier estimate of 1.1 per cent growth in production,” it said.

Production tanked by 8.1 per cent in January touching a four-year low to 26.6 per cent.

“The steep decline in output can be largely attributed to the three-day strike by ONGC workers in January 2009,” the CMIE said adding that the monthly decline was an “aberration”.

“ONGC, which accounts for 75 per cent of the total domestic crude output, witnessed a 8.7 per cent decline in production during the month,” it said.

The CMIE also expects refinery throughput to grow 7.7 per cent in the coming fiscal.

“The growth in refinery throughput in 2009-10 is expected to be largely fuelled by Reliance Petroleum’s (RPL) export-oriented refinery at Jamnagar,” it pointed out.