December 20, 2012:

CHENNAI: The November numbers don't bring too much festive cheer for the petroleum industry with refinery throughput down across the public and private sectors. As per the data released by the Petroleum Planning& Analysis Cell, refinery throughput declined by 2.9% in November 2012 compared to October which hit a record high of 18.7 million tonne. The November data shows refinery throughput came down to 18.2 million tonne. Most refineries reported a decline in throughput during the month. Bharat Petroleum's throughput was down 13.1% in November 2012; its Mumbai and Kochi refineries together processed 1.8 million tonne of crude oil as against two million tonne totted up the month before. Refinery throughput for Hindustan Petroleum was down to 1.3 million tonne from 1.4 million tonne in October 2012- down 11.3%. Among the smaller public sector refineries, Chennai Petroleum and Numaligarh refinery reported a 2.2 and 7.9% fall in throughput respectively.

The largest private sector player Reliance Industries saw its throughput come down by 2.1% to 5.8 million tonne. Essar Oil processed 1.6 million tonne of crude oil, down 3.3% over the previous month. Bharat Oman Refineries' Bina refinery processed 2.2% less oil during the month. Its throughput stood at 0.5 million tonne.

By Times of India