Indian oil refinery companies have imported 15.944 million tonne of oil in July against 14.594 million tonne in the same month last year as the domestic crude oil output has diminished. Domestic oil production dropped by 2.3 per cent in July, shows the data of the Union Ministry for Petroleum & Natural Gas.    

In July, Indian refiners bought crude oil at $104.86 a barrel    

In the world, India is among the largest energy consumers along with the US, China and Russia. Through only imports, India meets over 75 per cent of its crude oil requirement. India has limited domestic availability of oil and gas amounting to almost 40 per cent of the energy basket and it is inevitable for the country to import large portion of its oil requirement in a volatile international price scenario.    

On April 1, 2013, India's refining capacity stood at 215 million tonne per annum, up 68.87 per cent since 2004-05. It is further projected to go up to 264.966 million tonnes by 2015-16, which means that refiners will have to depend more on crude imports to run the plants.