Indian Oil Corp, the country’s top refiner, operated of its 9 plants in November at 100% capacity for the first time since February, to meet rising local fuel demand, it said in a statement on Thursday.
IOC previously operated its directly-owned plants at full capacity ahead of a nationwide lockdown enforced from late March to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
India’s fuel demand has been recovering from the lows seen in April with a gradual pick up in the industrial and economic activity after the lockdown was eased.
Along with its subsidiary Chennai Petroleum Corp, IOC controls about a third of the 5 million barrels per day refining capacity in India, where fuel demand in October rose by 2.5%, its first year-on-year rise in eight months.
Local fuel demand – a proxy for oil consumption – in India has almost reached pre-COVID levels, IOC said.
The refiner operated its plants at about 88% in October and at 99% in November last year, it said.
“As we get closer to the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out, the fundamentals of the economy being strong, we see a rapid V-shaped recovery in the overall consumption of petroleum products,” said S.M. Vaidya, chairman of IOC.
“All our project sites too are witnessing a revival in terms of construction activities,” he said.
IOC, also the country’s largest fuel retailer, in November sold 1.06 million tonnes of gasoline, 4% higher than same month last year, and sales of cooking gas rose by about 1.4% to 1.09 million tonnes.
However, the company’s diesel sales last month were 9% lower that previous year, while jet fuel was down by about 45% as air travel restrictions continued. Sales of diesel and jet fuel in November rose by 2% and 4% from October.
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