Indian refiners' March crude processing slips 1.8% from a year earlier

April 29 (Reuters) - Indian refiners' crude throughput slipped 1.8% year-on-year in March to 5.55 million barrels per day (23.48 million metric tons), provisional government data showed on Tuesday.

India is the world's third-biggest oil importer and consumer.

Here are some more details:

• Refinery throughput in March last year was at 5.65 million barrels per day (23.90 million metric tons).

• Refinery throughput in February stood at 5.73 million barrels per day (21.88 million metric tons).

• Separate data earlier this month showed that India's fuel consumption rose to 21.37 million metric tons in March from 20.19 million the previous month and gained 3.2% compared with the same period last year.

• The U.S.-Israel war with Iran has led to a surge in energy prices as shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a conduit for about 20% of global oil and LNG supplies, remains disrupted.

• Data on Tuesday also showed India's crude oil imports fell 16.7% on a yearly basis, while product exports declined about 27.2%.

• India's Russian oil imports in March surged to a record 2.25 million barrels per day, and are set to remain near record highs in April and May following a new U.S. waiver allowing countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil at sea for about a month, traders said last week.

• India's Reliance Industries RELI.NS, operator of the world's biggest refining complex, imported about 350,400 bpd of Russian oil in March, more than double from February, to partly make up for a shortfall caused by the Middle East crisis.

REFINERY PRODUCTION IN TERMS OF CRUDE THROUGHPUT (in 1,000 tons):

Source: Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas

IOC: Indian Oil Corp IOC.NS

BPCL: Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd BPCL.NS

HPCL: Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd HPCL.NS

CPCL: Chennai Petroleum Corp Ltd CHPC.NS

MRPL: Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd MRPL.NS

Reliance Industries Ltd RELI.NS

Please note that CPCL's CBR refinery is de-commissioned under shutdown due to limitation in meeting required product specifications with the existing configuration.