India's refining capacity tripled over a 15-year period between 1999 and 2014, announced the country's ministry of petroleum and natural gas on Monday.
The refining capacity rose to 215 million metric tons by April 2014, from 70 million metric tons in April 1999, while the country aims to increase its capacity up to 307 million metric tons per annum by 2017.
India's domestic consumption of petroleum products was 158 million metric tons between April 2013 and April 2014 while nearly 68 million metric tons of refined petroleum products were exported during that period.
Diesel was the most exported refined product with 26.5 million metric tons, while the amount of exported refined petrol was more than 15 million and naphtha was around 8.5 million metric tons by 2014, according to data released by the ministry.
By 2014, the United Arab Emirates was the leading client of India's refined petroleum products with 7.3 million metric tons. Saudi Arabia is the second largest importer with about 7 million metric tons and Singapore falls in third place with nearly 6.5 million metric tons.
The refining sector in India was opened to the private sector in 1998 with a de-licensing process. It owns about 38 percent of the total capacity, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration.
By Ugur Serhan Ozcan
Anadolu Agency