India's crude oil imports jumped by over 29 per cent to 8.3 million tonnes in January this year despite import of petroleum products rising by 22.6 per cent to 660,900 tonnes.

Public sector refiners imported 5.46 million tonnes of crude in January as against 3.44 million tonnes imported in January 2003 while private sector Reliance Industries saw import volumes fall 4.6 per cent to 2.83 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the petrolem & natural gas ministry.

Total imports (crude plus products) were up 31.4 per cent to 8.43 million tonnes as opposed to 6.42 million tonnes in the same month last year.

LPG imports went up 8.1 per cent to 198,700 tonnes, mostly by the public sector firms. On the other hand, private sector imported 14,900 tonnes of diesel, more than double of 7,100 tonnes imported in January of 2003.

Naphtha imports went up 17.6 per cent to 278,900 tonnes.

During the first 10 months of the current fiscal, crude oil imports went up 11.2 per cent to 79.95 million tonnes when compared with 68.32 million tonnes imported last fiscal. PSU imports went up 33.2 per cent to 51.49 million tonnes while imports by Reliance fell 17.5 per cent to 24.45 million tonnes.

Petroleum product imports went up 4.7 per cent to 5.67 million tonnes in April-January over 5.45 million tonnes of the corresponding period the previous year.