‘A firm plan in place to diversify crude basket’: SM Vaidya, IOCL chairman

State-run Indian Oil Corporation reported a net profit of Rs 21,836 crore for the fiscal ended March 31, which is the highest annual profit ever reported by the oil refining and marketing company. While interacting with the media after the result announcement, chairman SM Vaidya said that IOCL has “a firm plan in place to diversify the crude basket so that we are able to get crude from all the geographies of the world”. Excerpts from the interaction:

On auto fuel demand:
In April, 2020, the refinery run rate was 49%, May, 2020 was 67% and in June it had recovered to 90%. FY21 saw refinery runs of 89.5%. In April, we had a refinery run rate of 96.1%, and till May 17, the refinery runs are at 84%. So that is how the refinery runs have been reacting this year. So, the demand destruction is not to the extent as it was seen last year. When demand will return to normalcy is a very difficult question to answer. We have lost about 15-20% of the fuel demand, especially in petrol, diesel. Aviation turbine fuel is still a long way from recovery.