India will keep exporting diesel to help meet global demand and ease the fuel crunch, Oil Minister Hardeep Puri said.
“We honor our commitments,” the minister said at an industry event in New Delhi, noting that India’s refining capacity continues to expand thanks to years of investments.
India’s refining capacity today is around 5.36 million barrels per day (bpd), which will rise to 5.8 million bpd over the next year, Puri said. By 2032, India targets to have 6.4 million bpd of refining capacity, the minister noted.
“At a time when refining capacity is declining in several parts of the world, India is moving in the opposite direction, building new refineries while simultaneously expanding and modernising existing ones,” Puri wrote in a post on X.
“This sustained capacity expansion reflects India’s growing energy needs, the strength of our refining sector and our long-term focus on energy security.”
India will continue to export diesel, even as the idea of a ban on diesel exports emerged in the United States, according to the Indian minister.
Global diesel markets have severely tightened in recent months as several key export valves have run into inability to meet demand.
Despite the uptick in flows from the Strait of Hormuz, only 1 million bpd out of an estimated up to 10 million bpd outbound flows are refined products; the rest is crude.
Refinery capacity is constrained in the Middle East due to Iranian strikes on refineries and the trickle of fuel flows through Hormuz.
Then there is also severely restricted capacity in Russia due to Ukrainian drone strikes at Russian refineries. Russia has banned diesel exports until the end of September and is likely to extend the ban through October.
Moreover, China restricted fuel exports between April and July, and following a surge in exports in August and September, it could lower overseas shipments again in October amid multi-year-low domestic diesel and gasoline inventories.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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