OREANDA-NEWS. June 7, 2011. Bharat Petroleum Corp., India’s second-largest state refiner, will raise oil processing to a record 30 million metric tons in the year ending March 2013 to meet demand in the world’s second-fastest growing major economy.

The Mumbai-based company will increase refining to 28 million tons in the year ending March 31, 2012, from 25 million tons a year earlier, Chairman R.K. Singh told reporters at the Asia Oil and Gas Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

Refiners in India, the world’s fourth-biggest oil consumer, are investing in new capacity amid a boom in energy use. The International Energy Agency estimates the South Asian nation’s energy consumption will more than double to 833 million tons of oil equivalent by 2030. Fuel demand in India may rise between 5 percent and 7 percent annually in the next decade, Singh said on Nov. 25.

Bharat Petroleum plans to spend about USD 4.5 billion to expand its capacity, Finance Director S.K. Joshi said Sept. 24. The company may boost the capacity of its newly constructed 6 million ton-a-year Bina refinery in central India and its Kochi plant in the country’s south, Chairman Singh said Nov. 25. The Kochi and Bina refineries can be expanded to 15 million tons each, he said.

Gross refining margins may climb as high as USD 7 a barrel in the year ending March 31 as the spread between crude and oil products stays near USD 18 and USD 20 a barrel, Singh said today. Margins averaged USD 4.50 in the previous fiscal year. The company expects “very good” refining margins in the next two years. Processing profit in the three months ending June 30 may stay near the previous quarter’s USD 7.90 a barrel, he said.