By IANS
New Delhi : Private petroleum companies exceeded their crude oil production target for November by 16.5 percent even as crude production in the country fell below expectation, according to official statistics released Wednesday.
The privet companies together produced 403,000 tonnes of crude oil against their month’s target of 346,000 tonnes.
Indian crude oil production in November was 1.1 percent below the target mainly because of disruption in production in Assam due to local agitations.
The target was 2.854 million tonne (MT) but actual production was only 2.822 MT, petroleum ministry said.
The reported shortfall in the monthly crude production was mainly due to less than expected production in the oilfields of state-owned Oil India Ltd (OIL), which attributed it to local agitations in Assam.
OIL reported the highest percentage shortfall of 12.7 percent in crude oil production vis-à-vis the target set for it.
In comparison, the reported shortfall in crude production of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) was 2.3 percent.
Prolonged power cuts at ONGC’s key production installations in Gujarat and delay in undertaking development drilling by the company in oil wells in the Mumbai region were reported as the main reasons for the shortfall in ONGC’s monthly production.
In contrast, the overall production of private and joint venture companies in November was 16.5 percent higher than the target envisaged by the government.
Total crude production during April-November this year was 22.689 MT, a shortfall of 1.7 percent in the target set by the government for the period.
This was, however, marginally higher than the actual production reported in the same period of the previous year.
However, output of petroleum products at 12.973 million tonnes in the same month was 3.7 percent higher than the targeted production for the period.
Indian Oil Corp’s (IOC) Koyali, Guwahati, Mathura and Digboi refineries exceeded their monthly production targets.
ONGC’s Mangalore and Reliance Petroleum Ltd’s Jamnagar refineries also produced more than their monthly targets.