Where India refines its oil, and where it burns it

The current Crude oil crisis is introducing challenges that not many have seen before. Taking the emotions out, its important to understand the crisis purely from a data stand point.

Crude oil in itself is useless unless its refined to reap its enormous power. Refined to gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other products..

China, United states and Russia are the three countries with the largest refining capacity in the world and in that order with 18.48, 18.43, 6.80 million barrels per day (mbpd) capacity. India comes next with 5.8 mbpd. Irony in this data is that two out of the top four countries has negligible amount of oil.

Lets focus on India here..

Every month, India's refineries take in about 22 million tonnes of crude oil, roughly 5.3 million barrels a day (mbpd).

This first post maps where that refining happens, how much each state can process, and where the oil goes. The figures come from the Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC), the data arm of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, for April to June 2026.

24 refineries, 15 states

India has 24 refineries spread across 15 states. The other 21 states and union territories have none, and draw their fuel from refineries elsewhere.

The count alone misleads. Assam and Gujarat each have four refineries. Assam's four, at Digboi, Guwahati, Bongaigaon and Numaligarh, can together process 7.6 million tonnes of crude a year. Gujarat's four can process 101.9 million, more than 13 times as much, with one in Jamnagar having the highest refining capacity than any other refineries in the world.

Most refining states have a single plant: Bihar (Barauni), Haryana (Panipat), Karnataka (Mangalore), Kerala (Kochi), Madhya Pradesh (Bina), Odisha (Paradeep), Punjab (Guru Gobind Singh refinery), Rajasthan (Barmer), Uttar Pradesh (Mathura) and West Bengal (Haldia). Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have two each.

One state holds 38% of the capacity

Together, India's refineries can process 267.1 million tonnes of crude a year, about 5.36 million barrels a day. Gujarat alone accounts for 101.9 million tonnes, 38% of the national total. That is more than the next six states combined.

The four Gujarat refineries are Reliance's two at Jamnagar, Indian Oil's at Koyali and Nayara Energy's at Vadinar. Between them they can process about four times as much crude as the 25.3 million tonnes of fuel Gujarat itself uses in a year.

After Gujarat the drop is steep: Maharashtra 21.5 million tonnes, Kerala 15.5, then Haryana, Karnataka and Odisha at 15 each. The remaining nine refining states each have between 6 and 14 million tonnes.

Where the oil comes from, and where it goes

The chart follows a year of oil through the system, at the pace of April to June 2026. Crude and imported fuel come in, refineries turn crude into products, and the products are used in India or sold abroad.

Crude coming in. India imported crude at a rate of 241 million tonnes a year, or 4.84 million barrels a day. That is 90% of all the crude its refineries process. India's own fields add 27.4 million tonnes, and ONGC produces 60% of that. Fields run under production- and revenue-sharing contracts supply 19%, Oil India 14%, and condensate from gas fields the rest.

Refineries running flat out. Refineries processed 264.4 million tonnes a year against a capacity of 267.1 million.

Fuel used in India. India used 218.7 million tonnes of petroleum products a year. Diesel is the largest at 102.6 million tonnes, 47% of the total. Petrol is 45.5 million tonnes (21%) and LPG 25.9 million (12%).

Fuel sold abroad. India exported 44.4 million tonnes of products a year. Diesel made up 40% of that, petrol 25%, and jet fuel and naphtha about 12% each.

The exception: cooking gas. India imports 24.2 million tonnes of products a year, and almost half is LPG. Imports cover 44% of the LPG India uses, even as it exports diesel and petrol.

What it adds up to

India's refining system is both a strength and an exposure. It makes all the diesel the country uses and more: production ran at 113% of use in April to June. That shields India from paying world prices for imported diesel.

But the crude that feeds it is 90% imported. When shipping lanes or crude prices move, India feels the pinch.

Next: Why diesel matters: what India uses diesel for, how it grows with the economy, and why its use barely falls when the price rises.

Sources and notes

Data: Petroleum Planning & Analysis Cell (PPAC), Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas: Oil and Gas Snapshot of States, Vol. 2026-27, Edition I (data as of 30 June 2026); Import/Export of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products, 2026-27 (provisional); Indigenous Crude Oil Production, 2026-27 (provisional).

Flows are April to June 2026 monthly averages multiplied by 12, so they do not capture seasonal swings over a full year. Barrels are shown for crude only, at 7.33 barrels per tonne. Map boundaries © OpenStreetMap contributors; simplified and not an official map of India.