India's crude oil imports have jumped 5.3 per cent to 51.928 million tonnes in the first seven months of the current fiscal as against 49.289 million tonnes in the same period last fiscal.

Crude imports by public sector oil firms went up by 5.1 per cent to 33.674 million tonnes as opposed to 32.016 million tonnes in April-October 2002-03, petroleum secretary B K Chaturvedi told PTI in New Delhi.

Reliance imported 18.254 million tonnes of crude this fiscal as compared to 17.273 million tonnes the previous year while the country's largest refiner Indian Oil Corp imported 18.274 million tonnes as against 18 million tonnes last year.

"The rise in crude oil imports is mainly due to Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemical Ltd operating at its full capacity," he said.

Besides, the country imported 3.367 million tonnes of petroleum products, slightly lower than 3.47 million tonnes of products imported in the first seven months of 2002-03.

Chaturvedi said naphtha import was down to 1.24 million tonnes (1.63 million tonnes last year) but LPG imports surged to 0.68 million tonnes in April-October this year as against 0.235 million tonnes in 2002-03.

Kerosene imports too were higher at 0.665 million tones when compared with 0.396 million tonnes last year.

On the other hand, export of petroleum products rose 21.6 per cent to 7.3 million tonnes in the first seven months of 2003-04 as opposed to 6 million tonnes the previous year.