Ukraine War: Mukesh Ambani's RIL supplying diesel to Europe from Jamnagar refinery

According to a Reuters report, Reliance Industries Ltd.’s Jamnagar facility is lifting crude processing and deferring planned maintenance to take advantage of surging demand for diesel.

The shipments will increase in the coming months, said the people who asked not to be named as the information isn’t public, Reuters reported.

The Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat processes 1.36 million barrels of crude a day from two refineries and is able to export most of the fuel, nearly 704,000 barrels a day.

Due to the pandemic, the facility has been able to utilize around three-quarters of its capacity in January.

“Reliance has large flexibility in terms of crude feedstock ratio and yield shifts, and it exports 80 percent of its output,” said Senthil Kumaran, head of South Asia oil at industry consultant FGE, according to the report. “That gives it the maximum benefit in strong margin times,” added Kumaran.

Reliance has also postponed to September the closure of one of the crude processing units at Jamnagar for nearly three weeks starting March, but that’s now been postponed to September, the people said.

The export-focused unit operated up to only 74.7 percent of its capacity in January, data from India’s oil ministry show.

Nayara Energy Ltd., where Russia’s Rosneft Oil Co. PJSC has a 49 percent stake, also runs a refinery in the Jamnagar area and exports fuel, but much lower than Reliance.

The big state-owned processors, such as Indian Oil Corp and BPCL mainly cater to the domestic market.