Oil India will bring online its planned Numaligarh oil refinery in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam by December 2025, the company’s chairman Ranjit Rath said on Wednesday.

The state-owned oil and gas company will set up a trading desk for the 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) refinery, which will process 110,000bpd of imported crude, Rath told reporters. He added that the remaining refining capacity of 70,000bpd will be met with domestically produced oil.

Oil India’s exploration and production activity lies mostly in the north-east of the country. Rath said the company would export fuel products produced at the Numaligarh refinery to Bangladesh. He added that oil production remains strong, rising to a record 6.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) last fiscal year, up from 6.36mtoe year-on-year.

He said the company is looking to further raise its output and would spend $1.62bn (Rs135bn) this fiscal year, up from Rs115bn year-on-year. Oil India currently has a target to drill 61 wells this fiscal year compared with 45 in 2023/24.

Despite Oil India’s strong outlook, India’s government said on Wednesday it has concerns over rising crude oil prices. India is the world’s third-biggest importer of crude oil and any increase in market prices will inevitably cause concern, the country’s Oil Secretary, Pankaj Jain, told audiences at an industry event.

Jain added that the current “geopolitical premium” on crude is a cause for concern, citing the current conflict in the Middle East that has rocked the global oil market. The ongoing war in Ukraine has also caused continued disruption to international oil trade as Russia is still finding ways to redirect its crude supplies amid Western sanctions.

Brent Crude futures for June – the price benchmark for global crude trade – rose $0.16 to above $89 per barrel at around 09:00 GMT on Wednesday. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures for May also gained $0.11, or 0.13%, to $85.26 per barrel.