New Delhi: Nayara Energy, India's second-largest private oil refinery, exported over 80 percent of all its fuel exports to Asia, the Middle East and Africa during the first seven months of the current fiscal, with only minuscule volumes going to the UK and none to the EU, a company official said. Nayara, which operates a 20 million tonnes a year oil refinery at Vadinar in Gujarat, exported 4.46 million tonnes of petroleum products including diesel, jet fuel and gasoline from April 2022 to October 2022, a company spokesperson said.
The bulk of the fuel it produces at Vadinar is used for sale through its 6,648 petrol pumps, the largest network by any private company, in the country and institutional sales.
The company is primarily focused on catering to the domestic market through institutional business, sales to other oil companies and through its own retail chain.
"India, structurally, is long on diesel and the same is to be exported after satisfying domestic demand," the spokesperson said.
Out of the total 4.46 million tonnes of exports by Nayara Energy during the first seven months of the current fiscal (2022-23), two-thirds was diesel. "Diesel exports stood at about 2.97 million tonnes which is roughly 66 percent of all exports."
"Nayara Energy's biggest market is Asia along with Middle East and Africa which contributes to more than 80 percent of the total exports," the company spokesperson said.
These exports have also been possible due to strong output on the back of top-notch operational efficiencies at Nayara's state-of-the-art Vadinar refinery, which has operated at an average run rate of 95 per cent during the period.
During April 2022 to October 2022, Nayara supplied a minuscule amount of 0.07 million tonnes of diesel – a mere 2.36 percent of the total diesel exports – to Gibraltar (UK) via international traders, none to the EU.
"The diesel exported by Nayara does not fit the winter-specific diesel requirement of the EU hence we do not export to this market," the company spokesperson said.
Earlier this month, Nayara Energy reported a nearly 50 percent fall in its September quarter net profit from the previous three months as it was hit by an export tax on diesel and jet fuel and weak margins.
The firm posted a net profit of Rs 1,793.4 crore in July-September, down from Rs 3,563.7 crore in the previous three months.
The government beginning July 1 slapped a tax on windfall profits on the export of petrol, diesel and jet fuel. The tax rates are changed fortnightly depending on the margins and the tax on petrol exports has since been scrapped.
The firm posted a net loss of Rs 90.8 crore in July-September 2021.
Revenue from operations came in at Rs 37,039.2 crore in July-September 2022 as compared to Rs 38,471.1 crore in the previous three months and Rs 29,374.4 crore last year.
Russia's Rosneft and Kesani Enterprises Co Ltd, a consortium led by Trafigura Group and UCP Investment Group, each hold a 49.13 percent stake in Nayara.
(With PTI inputs)
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