NEW DELHI: The net import bill for oil and gas for the country fell from $18.35 billion in November 2022 to $11.2 billion in December 2022, thanks to decline in average crude oil prices, data from the Petroleum Ministry shows. The net oil and gas import bill in December 2021 was $10.7 billion.
Net import is calculated after reducing the country’s oil and gas exports from the total imports of oil and gas. India imported crude oil worth $11.9 billion, LNG imports $1.6 billion and the exports were $4.6 billion. Crude oil imports decreased by 3% in December 2022 compared to the same period last year. In the April-December 2022 period, however, crude oil imports increased by 9.9%.
The price of Brent Crude averaged $81.82 a barrel during December 2022 as against $91.67 a barrel during November 2022 and $74.10 a barrel during December 2021. The Indian basket crude price averaged $78.10 a barrel during December 2022 as against $87.55 a barrel during November 2022 and $73.30 a barrel during December 2021.
The country processed 22.3 MMT of crude oil during December 2022, which was 3.7 % higher than December 2021 as compared to a de-growth of 8.9% during November 2022. A growth of 6.4 % was registered in the total crude oil processing during April-December 2022 over the corresponding period of the previous year.