Oil marketing companies (OMCs) incurred losses of Rs 74,781 crore on the sale of petrol, diesel and LPG during the period up to June 30, as global crude oil prices surged following the West Asia conflict, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday.
Explaining the financial impact, Puri said, “OMCs under recovery on petrol during April-June is Rs 19,905 crore. Diesel under recovery is Rs 1.44 lakh crore. LPG under recovery during Apr-June is Rs 24,148 crore. Cumulative under recovery during Apr-Jun is Rs 1.88 lakh crore.”
He added, “Including under recoveries made by OMCs on LPG previous year, total under recovery incurred by OMCs is Rs 2.1 lakh crore.” On the overall losses, the minister said, “Total accumulated loss by OMCs for Apr-Jun is Rs 74,781 crore.”
Puri said India maintained uninterrupted fuel supplies despite the global disruption.
“Even at the most difficult time we were always sufficiently stocked with supplies of crude oil, diesel and LPG due to diversification.”
On the possibility of a reduction in petrol and diesel prices, Puri said the crude currently being processed was purchased when international prices and freight rates were significantly higher.
“When will (retail) prices go down? Petrol and diesel being processed currently is priced in at higher crude and freight prices because it’s booked two months advance. If this continues, we will see.”
Highlighting India's strategy to diversify energy imports, the minister said, “we were also going to countries with which we had no trade earlier. We got lot of cargoes from the US (for LPG) which were already in pipeline. Diversification has stated earlier, not in the past four months.”
He added that Indian refineries are equipped to process different grades of crude oil.
“Our refineries are configured to deal with different kinds of crude. So when Venezuelan crude opened, we started buying from them.”
On preparations for future volatility in global oil markets, Puri said, “I’m not worried about oil prices (rising) but I’ve to prepare for it. Increasing my storage space, instenfying our outreach to bilateral partners, all that will go hand in hand.”