Reliance supplies diesel to India’s state-owned oil refiners

One of India’s leading private oil and gas producing corporations, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), is enjoying robust sales of diesel fuel as consumers increasingly opt for the subsidized fuel which costs 41% less than petrol. Statistics from the Oil Ministry’s data center, the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), indicate that the monthly petroleum consumption grew by only 0.2% in April, the lowest growth rate in the past 18 months. Diesel fuel accounted for 47% of the total consumption. The country’s state-owned oil refiners have not been able to cope with the increasing demand for subsidized diesel fuel and have stated buying from private companies like Reliance and Essar to compensate for the deficit. Reliance had sold close to 15 million tonnestons of diesel fuel per year to state-owned oil refiners. “As this situation continues, we will have to buy more from the private refiners and maybe also increase imports,” said R.K. Singh, chairman of Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (June 29, 2012)