Govt Reduces Oil Import Bill To $8.83 Billion

The oil import bill for the fiscal 1997-98 (April-March) has been pruned to $8.83 billion due to reduced imports of petroleum products and softer global prices, a petroleum ministry official said yesterday.

Crude oil and product imports were valued at $10.03 billion in the 1997-98 oil economy budget which was approved at the beginning of the fiscal year.

The revised (oil) budget puts the import bill at $8.83 billion, the official said.

He said estimates of imports had been lowered to 21.67 million tonne from 24.98 million following a decline in consumption and an increase in output.

Based on consumption trends during April-September 1997, the product demand forecast has been cut to 82.57 million tonne from 86.25 million, the official had said last week.

 

The domestic output, in terms of refinery crude throughput, is now estimated at 64.63 million tonne, an increase of 1.73 million tonne over the previous forecast, he said. The country is likely to import 34.34 million tonne of crude oil in 1997-98. to meet the requirements of domestic refineries. In April 1997, India budgeted for imports of 33.66 million tonne of crude, he said.

Domestic crude output has been estimated to increase to 31.61 million tonne from 31.15 million, he said. Low global prices of crude and products also contributed to the reduction in the import bill, the official said.

International prices fell below those estimated at the time of preparing the budget in April, he added.

International prices are quite soft due to a slowdown in the Asian economies. It (price) is expected to soften further with the prospect of a resumption of Iraqi crude sales by the end of the week, he said.

According to a government document obtained, India imported 16.86 million tonnes of crude oil valued at $2.23 billion, or an average $18.07 per barrel, in April-September 1997.

Product imports during the same period were 8.64 million tonne for $1.59 billion, an average of $183.5 per tonne.

The oil economy budget had estimated crude oil imports at $19 per barrel and product imports at an average of $210 per tonne.

India imported 33.91 million tonne of crude for $5.14 billion and 19.52 million tonne of products for $4.22 billion during 1996-97.

The 1996-97 net oil import bill, including exports of 2.66 million tonne of naphtha, natural gas liquid and fuel oil worth $481.86 million, was $8.87 billion.