India is making progress toward petroleum self-sufficiency.
Its crude oil imports fell during fiscal year 1994-95 ended Mar. 31 to 548,000 b/d from 600,000 b/d in the previous fiscal.year.
Expectations are that crude oil imports will drop further during fiscal 1995-96 as domestic crude oil production climbs to a record 720,000 b/d.
The Petroleum Ministry estimates that India's crude oil production was 640,000 b /d in fiscal 1994-95 and could increase by as much as 100,000 b/d in the current fiscal year.
Indian oil reserves rose 465.4 million bbl in fiscal 1994 95, compared with an increase of 104.37 million bbl in the previous fiscal year. Natural gas reserves jumped by 647.5 bcf in the last fiscal year compared with a gain of 252.4 bcf in fiscal 1993-94. Oil & Gas journal estimated India's proved reserves as of Jan. 1, 1995, at 5.776 billion bbl of oil and almost 25 tcf of gas (OGJ, Dec. 26, 1994, p. 42).
DOWNSTREAM LAGS
Downstream, India's petroleum sector continues to lag, although there are signs that trend may soon turn around.
India's refined products imports rose to 277,800 b/d in the last fiscal year from 241,600 b/d in fiscal 1993-94.
That trend is likely to persist in the near term as domestic refining capacity continues to lag while demand for refined products is expected to average 1.6 million b/d in fiscal 1995-96 compared with 1.3 million b/d in the last fiscal year.
Expansions of Indian Oil Corp.'s Guwahati refinery and the Cochin refinery boosted total Indian refining capacity to 1.14 million b/d.
The Petroleum Ministry is considering proposals for grassroots capacity expansion, debottlenecking, and new joint venture refineries.
In an advanced stage of the government approval process are projects that would add 329,000 b/d of capacity They include plant expansions adding 89,000 b/d of capacity, as well as grassroots refineries at Mangalore, Panipat, and Numaligarh that would add 240,000 b/d of capacity.
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