Crude oil production up 1.6% in August

India's crude oil production rose by 1.6% in August to 3.24 million tonne as higher output from Cairn India operated Rajasthan fields offset the decline at the state oil and gas explorer ONGC's assets.

Crude oil production in August was up 1.6% to 3.24 million tonne as against 3.19 million tonne in the same period a year ago, according to the data released by the Oil Ministry here.

Cairn's Rajasthan oilfields produced 5,42,000 tonne, 1.8% more than August 2010. On the other hand, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) saw a decline in output by 1.1% to 2.03 million tonne. Its prime Mumbai High fields produced 2.2% less crude at 1.41 million tonne.

State-owned Oil India (OIL) reported a 4.7% rise in output to 330,900 tonne.

Natural gas output dipped for the ninth straight month, declining 5.3% to 4.1 billion cubic metre, according to the data.

Nineteen public and private sector refineries processed 3.9% more crude in August at 14.03 million tonne with state owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) reporting a 0.8% rise in crude throughput to 4.29 million tonne.

Reliance Industries' 33 million tonne a year Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat reported about a percentage drop in crude throughput at 3 million tonne.

Essar Oil, the only other private refiner in the country, raised output by 3.9% to 1.27 million tonne.

Refineries operated at 109.5% of the capacity in the month, compared to 102.3% capacity utilisation in the year-ago period.