India's rising oil demand to support investments in refineries, upstream production: Moody's

India's rising oil consumption will support its investments in refining capacity additions and upstream production, but imports will keep growing amid stagnant production, Moody's Investors Service said Monday.

The country's dependence on imported crude oil to meet its needs has risen to 83.7 per cent in 2018-19 fiscal year from 82.9 per cent in 2017-18. Import dependence was 80.6 per cent in 2015-16.

In a report on regulatory and security policies in emerging markets, Moody's said all petroleum products in India are now sold at prices linked to international or regional market rates, which has opened up the fuel retail market.

But national oil companies - Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) continue to enjoy over 90 per cent market share in petroleum product distribution, it said.

The three oil refining and marketing national oil companies (NOCs) control 57,944 petrol pumps out of a total of 64,624 petrol pumps in the ...