Under-recoveries in FY 11 at around Rs 59,000-cr: Deora

MUMBAI: Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora today said the Government would be incurring total under-recoveries of about Rs 59,000-crore on essential petroleum products for 2010-11.

Of the total under-recoveries, about Rs 18,000-crore would come from LPG alone, Deora said at an event organised by the All India LPG Distributors Federation.

"The Government has always ensured that LPG is available to the common man at affordable prices, even when crude oil touched an all-time high of US 143 per barrel. However, due to this we had to suffer under recoveries of around Rs one-lakh-crore during 2008-09. We might incur about Rs 59,000-crore this fiscal," Deora said.

On the demand for petroleum products, Deora said it is expected to go up consistently, which would put pressure on the supply-chain and also increase the burden of under-recoveries on oil marketing companies (OMCs).

"Increasing demand for petroleum products would result in more foreign exchange out-go for import of crude oil as India imports more than 75 per cent of its crude oil requirements," he added.

On exports, Deora said that the oil industry has exported 51-million tonnes of refined petroleum products worth $ 30-billion in FY 10, the largest foreign exchange earner in the merchandised category.

Deora said that the supply of petroleum products in India could get a boost with the commissioning of three refineries coming up at Bina, Bhathinda and Paradip in the next two-years. This would increase India's refining capacity to about 240-million tonnes by 2012 from 185-million tonnes presently.

On natural gas, Deora said that the domestic production of natural gas increased from 80 MMSCMD in 2008-09 to 140 MMSCMD, up 75 per cent.

"By 2015, natural gas would be provided in more than 200 cities as piped gas in home and transportation sector. The PSUs are expanding their existing infrastructure to achieve this," he added.