Crude oil processing by Indian refiners rose about 10% year-on-year in February, provisional government data showed, as demand in the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer grew, reported Reuters.
Throughput in February rose 9.8% to 5.35 MMbpd (20.44 MMt), the data showed on Tuesday.
But processing fell 5.8% from January, with a drop at Indian Oil Corp's Bongaigaon Refinery in Assam due to a power failure.
India's fuel consumption had its biggest year-on-year jump since August 2021, up 5.4% in February compared with the same month in 2021, although soaring oil prices due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine could slow the recovery.
"It was always expected that we'd quickly see demand recover once it became clear that the latest (coronavirus) variant wasn't nearly as threatening as those that preceded it," said Craig Erlam, senior analyst at OANDA.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said last week that India was set to become the third largest refiner after its downward revision to Russia's throughput forecast amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Average 2022 oil deliveries from India will be 20,000 bpd above 2019 levels, the IEA added.
Crude output from drilling wells and the Oil and Natural Gas Corp was lower than expected, the government release said.
As MRC wrote before, Indian Oil Corp. (IOC), the country's top refiner, will increase crude purchases from Iraq by 11.5% in 2022 to 390,000 bpd, partly to make up for a shortfall from Mexico and a possible supply cut from Kuwait.
Iraq is the top supplier of oil to India and its market share there is set to rise as another refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. will also buy more crude from the Middle Eastern nation. Mexico's national oil company Pemex has agreed to supply 22,000 bpd (1.1 MM tons) of oil to IOC, the sources said.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC''s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
MRC