No fuel crisis, India has enough stock to last lockdown: IOC chief

India, the world's third largest energy consumer, has enough petrol, diesel and cooking gas (LPG) in stocks to last way beyond the three-week nationwide lockdown as all plants and supply locations are fully operational, Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman Sanjiv Singh said.

Singh, who continued to oversee the mammoth operations of ensuring that fuel reaches every nook and corner despite bereavement of his father on the day 21-day lockdown was declared, said there is no shortage of any fuel in the country and customers should not resort to panic booking of LPG refills.

"We have mapped demand for all fuel for entire April and beyond. We have refineries operating at levels enough to meet all of the demand. Besides all bulk storage points, LPG distributorships and petrol pumps are functioning normally. There is absolutely no shortage of any fuel," he told PTI.

The nationwide lockdown that has shut businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and brought almost entire vehicular movement to a halt, has impacted fuel demand with petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) showing negative growth (degrowth or fall in demand).

With most cars and two-wheelers going off the road, petrol demand has fallen by 8 per cent in March while diesel demand has been down 16 per cent. ATF demand has fallen by 20 per cent, he said.

"LPG consumption however continues to grow and we are servicing all customers," he said adding refill demand saw more than 200 per cent jump as the lockdown was announced.

The refills sought were a result of panic booking as in the absence of the exhausting existing ones, many could not take deliveries of new cylinders, he said adding even customers with double cylinder connections had ordered for refills without exhausting even one cylinder.

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"There is absolutely no need for panic booking. We have enough stocks to meet all demand," he said.

"When a customer resorts to panic booking, it puts unnecessary strain on the system as the requirement is immediately transmitted to bottling locations which make additional refills, transport it to bulk location and onward to the distributor.

"Distributors use already stretched delivery boys to physically deliver the cylinder to customer home only to return back with the filled cylinder as the customer refused delivery because existing ones hadn't exhausted."

Singh said due to lower demand of liquid fuels, refinery run-rates have been lowered by 25-30 per cent - meaning they would produce up to 30 per cent less of all fuel petrol, diesel, ATF, naphtha and LPG.

Every barrel of crude oil when processed produces a certain percentage of petrol, diesel, kerosene/ATF and LPG. So lower processing of crude would result in lower production of all fuel.

IOC signs annual deal on option to buy crude from Russia's Rosneft

State-owned Indian Oil Corp has signed a deal with Russian oil major Rosneft giving it an option to buy up to 2 million tonnes, or 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude in 2020, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Wednesday.

India has been diversifying its sources of crude oil imports, in order to hedge political risks that threaten to choke off supplies from a particular region or country.

"This is just the beginning," Pradhan said after meeting Igor Sechin, chairman of Rosneft, in New Delhi.

India's top refiner will exercise its option to buy Urals crude under this first annual deal with Rosneft whenever the price is low enough to compensate for freight costs, an IOC source said.

The contract gives IOC has the option to take as much as 40,000 bpd of oil this year, said the source, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

Indian state refiners typically buy Russian oil via the spot market rather than under contract. The nation's crude imports from Russia have typically been low since the freight costs tend to exceed those for Middle East supplies.

India is the world's third-biggest oil consumer and importer. It ships in more than 80% of its crude needs, usually relying on the Middle East for most of its supply.

Last year, however, the Middle East's share of India's crude imports shrank to 60%, down from 65% in 2018 and its lowest since 2015, as record output from the United States and countries like Russia offered alternatives for importers to tap.

Sechin indicated his readiness to work with Indian oil and gas companies to further strengthen the country's energy security, Pradhan said on Twitter after their meeting.

The two sides also discussed Indian investments in the Eastern Cluster projects of Russia, especially in the Arctic, he said.

Pradhan also told Rosneft of the federal government's plan to sell its stake in state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp, said two sources who sought anonymity.

Rosneft said it would look at the offer without committing to place a bid for BPCL, the sources said.

In November, Pradhan had said international energy firms would be invited to participate in privatisation of state-owned oil companies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met chief executives of firms including Exxon Mobil Corp, BP Plc, Royal Dutch Shell, Rosneft Oil Co, Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (Adnoc) in Houston.

Indian Oil Corp, Israel's Phinergy sign JV to produce metal-air batteries

IOC Chairman Sanjiv Singh said the IOC could use its vast retail network to supply the automotive sector in India, where the government is pushing for a shift to electric vehicles to cut pollution and lower the country's fuel import bill.

"We are confident that this Al-Air battery technology would complement lithium-ion batteries to provide a hybrid solution for the large-scale adoption of electric vehicles," he said in a company statement on Tuesday.

The statement did not specify the size of the stake or how much the IOC had paid for it.

The IOC and Phinergy will set up a join venture in India to manufacture Al-Air batteries and to facilitate development of supporting infrastructure.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, ships in over 80% of its overall needs from overseas, and is working to reduce that dependency.

In another step to diversify and clean up supplies, Singh said last week the IOC would install liquefied natural gas dispensers at fuel stations to serve some commercial vehicles able to run on the relatively cheap super cooled gas.

IOC reports 47% drop in Q1 net profit after refinery margins slump

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Wednesday reported a 47 per cent drop in its first quarter net profit after refinery margins slumped.

IOC reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,737.50 crore, or Rs 4.07 per share in April-June quarter this year, as compared to a net profit of Rs 7,092.42 crore, or Rs 7.48 a share, a year ago, the company said in a regulatory filing.

Revenue was almost flat at Rs 1.53 lakh crore in the first quarter of the 2019-20 fiscal year.

The company earned $4.69 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in April-June this financial year, down from $10.21 per barrel average gross refining margin in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year.

IOC said it had a foreign exchange gain of Rs 91.75 crore in April-June 2019, as compared to Rs 1,804.85 crore forex loss in the previous year.

Cyclone Fani: IOC ensures uninterrupted fuel supply in Odisha, West Bengal

Indian Oil Corp (IOC), the country's biggest fuel retailer, Friday said it has made arrangements to ensure uninterrupted supply of petrol, diesel, LPG and jet fuel in Odisha and West Bengal that faced a category-4 cyclone.

"In the wake of the cyclone Fani making landfall in Odisha earlier today (Friday), IOC is fully geared up and ensuring uninterrupted fuel supply from its locations in Odisha and West Bengal on the east coast," the company said in a statement.

The company said its operations are largely normal across the two eastern states and it continues to supply.

IOC has close to half of the retail fuel market share across the country.

"Adequate stock of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel, LPG, kerosene and aviation fuel is available. The Corporation is also actively assisting the district administration in evacuation, rescue and relief activities," the statement said.

Cyclone Fani is the worst storm since 2014 and had prompted authorities to shift more than a million people to safer places.

IOC is continuing to operate its 15 million tonne per annum capacity refinery at Paradip on Odisha coast. The refinery is designed to withstand cyclones with a speed of more than 200 kilometres per hour.