Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 27: New refining capacity could give India a bigger share of global diesel exports.
India expects its diesel exports to climb sharply from 2027, industry officials said on Tuesday. State-run refiners plan to add about 16.5 million tonnes of annual diesel production capacity. The extra output could give India a bigger share of a tight global fuel market.
The timing matters. The US-Iran and Russia-Ukraine wars have disrupted fuel trade and lifted freight costs. Plant closures have also squeezed supply, leaving operating refineries running near record utilisation. Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said India aims to refine for itself and the world.
Kpler ship-tracking data shows India is the second-largest seaborne diesel exporter this year. Only the United States ships more. That ranking covers seaborne diesel alone, not all refined fuels. Private refiners Reliance and Nayara already export refined fuels. State-run companies have mainly served domestic demand.
India plans to lift total refining capacity to 300 million tonnes a year by 2030. It aims for 400 million tonnes over the longer term. Refining capacity measures how much crude a system can process. Diesel output and actual exports are separate, smaller figures.
Indian Oil Corp, the country’s largest refiner, leads the expansion. Chairman A S Sahney said it aims to add about 18 million tonnes yearly. That should yield roughly 8 million tonnes of extra diesel. He said the expansion will allow the company to export diesel.
Hindustan Petroleum’s new 9-million-tonne refinery in Rajasthan will add 3 million tonnes of diesel. Chairman Vikas Kaushal said this will come next year, once operations stabilise. Bharat Petroleum expects 1.5 million tonnes of extra diesel from next year. Chairman Sanjay Khanna gave that estimate. Oil India’s Numaligarh refinery will expand to 9 million tonnes a year in March. That will add 3 million tonnes of diesel output. These four projects total about 15.5 million tonnes, below the reported 16.5 million aggregate. The report did not explain the gap.
The expansion could also lift exports indirectly. Some state refiners, including HPCL, buy fuel from private companies for their retail pumps. More in-house output will reduce those purchases. Officials said this would free up volumes for export. Whether private refiners ship that fuel abroad remains a commercial choice.
New units are designed to process a wide range of crude grades. They can also handle flexible petrochemical feedstocks. That lets refiners chase cheaper crude and make higher-value products. Still, flexibility does not guarantee profit. Margins depend on crude costs, product prices and freight rates.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently called India a refining “superpower” at Jamnagar. Puri expects domestic fuel demand to keep rising with economic growth. That growth could absorb part of any new output. India also still relies heavily on imported crude. More refineries add export capacity, not energy independence. Turning capacity into lasting export strength depends on efficiency, demand and fuel-market economics.
