India's oil import bill climbs to $ 4.72 bn

India's oil import bill for the first quarter of the current fiscal has climbed to $4.72 billion while petroleum product exports totalled $706 million.

The net oil import bill (import minus exports) during April-June was $4.014 billion, petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI in New Delhi.

Public sector oil refiners imported 16.43 million tonnes of crude oil, valued at $3.062 billion while Reliance Industries imported 8.009 million tonnes crude worth $1.405 billion.

About 1.105 million tonnes of petroleum products, including LPG, kerosene and naphtha, valuing $253 million was imported during April-June, while 3.204 million tonnes of products, like diesel, petrol and jet fuel worth $706 million, were exported during the quarter, he said.

During 2002-03, India's oil import bill was $17.620 billion. This included $15.979 billion on import of 82.986 million tonnes of crude oil.

Chaturvedi said India earned $301 million in foreign exchange revenue from export of 1.444 million tonnes of diesel in first quarter of 2003-04 while 754000 tonnes of petrol exports brought $187 million.