Oil cos output falls 2.9% in March: data

Indian upstream oil companies produced 3.2 million tonne of crude in March,2.9% less than their output in the same month a year ago,due to technical reasons and unplanned shutdowns,official data showed on Tuesday.

Production,however was up by 1% to 38 million tonne in the 2012 financial year.

Indian refineries recorded a jump in output of 1.6% to 15.2 million tonnes in March as companies exceeded production targets. In the 2012 fiscal,refiners produced 170.1 million tonne,an improvement of 3.2% from the previous fiscal. Capacity expansion by the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd and Essar Oil