India’s December Crude Oil Imports Increase 17% From November.

Indian refineries including state- owned Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s biggest, increased crude oil imports by 17 percent in December from a month earlier, spending $7.15 billion, according to government data.

Refiners bought 11 million metric tons of crude from overseas, the second-lowest in at least nine months, compared with 9.4 million tons in November, according to provisional data on the website of the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell, a department of India’s oil ministry. Crude imports in the nine months ended Dec. 31 were 115.28 million tons, according to the data, which didn’t give year-earlier figures.

India is building refineries and expanding existing plants to meet demand in Asia’s second-biggest energy consumer. Bharat Petroleum Corp., the nation’s second-biggest state refiner, plans to start commercial production at a new refinery in central India by Feb. 15, Chairman R.K. Singh said Jan. 13.

The South Asian nation imported 1.5 million tons of fuels in December, including 207,000 tons of naphtha and 340,000 tons of liquefied petroleum gas, according to the data. Fuel imports in November were 1.4 million tons.

Indian refiners exported 2 million tons of fuels in December compared with 1.97 million tons in the previous month.

Imports and exports from Reliance Industries Ltd.’s refineries in Gujarat state aren’t included in the November and December data.

Source : bloomberg.com