Indian refining and petrochemical giant Reliance Industries Ltd. Friday reported a 7.9% year-on-year decline in its gross refining margin for the January-March quarter, to $9.30/barrel.
However, the company showed an increase of 22.3% over the previous quarter, as demand bounced back and margins improved towards the end of the financial year, a senior company official said at a press conference in Mumbai.
Crude processing at its 1.24 million b/d Jamnagar complex on India's west coast for what is the fourth quarter of the financial year was 16.3 million mt, compared with 16.1 million mt in the corresponding period a year earlier, RIL said in a statement.
For the financial year ended March 2013, RIL reported a gross refining margin of of $8.10/b, down 12% over the previous year's $9.20/b.
Reliance processed 68 million mt of crude for the financial year 2013-14, marginally lower than 68.5 million mt in the previous year.
RIL said the average utilization rate at its refineries was 110% for the full financial year, which runs from April through March. The refineries processed 68 million mt for the financial year 2013-14, marginally lower than 68.5 million mt in the previous year.
Revenues from the refining segment increased 8.4% on-year to $60.4 billion in fiscal year 2013-14.
Exports of refined products during the year rose 4.6% to $41.1 billion, and in volume terms was 6.3% higher at 43.8 million mt.
RIL is India's largest private refiner. The Jamnagar complex houses two refineries, a new 580,000 b/d export-oriented refinery and an older 660,000 b/d plant.
On the domestic upstream side, RILs controversial eastern offshore KG-D6 block showed increase in gas production volume quarter-on-quarter as it brought on a new production well in January. Average gas production moved up to 13-14 million cu m/d in the fourth quarter compared to 12-13 million cu m/d in third quarter, Agarwal said.
During the year, RIL said it undertook several activities in the D1, D3 and MA fields in the KG-D6 block to sustain production and enhance recovery from the existing producing fields.
Exploration activity is also currently underway in the block with drilling of MJ-A1. The first appraisal well in the D55 discovery and the second appraisal well MJ-A2 has also begun, RIL said.
There are two rigs currently in operation in the block with one rig performing side-track activity in MA-6H location and the other rig drilling appraisal well MJ-A2.
KG-D6 produced 2.03 million barrels of crude oil, 0.28 million barrels of condensate and 178 Bcf of natural gas in fiscal 2013-14, down 30%, 30% and 47% respectively over previous year due to geological complexity and natural decline in the fields and higher than envisaged water ingress.
RILs western offshore Panna-Mukta fields also saw a fall in production during the year with crude production coming down by 9% to 7.4 million barrels and gas production by 8% to 65.4 Bcf.
The decrease in production was due to a 17-day shutdown, of which 3 days were in April 2013, for field maintenance activities and commissioning of new single point mooring (SPM) system, coupled with natural decline, RIL said.
