What furnace oil price do the forging and foundry profiles from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) use, and why do they differ from rupees (Rs) 22 to Rs 52 a litre?

The profiles print very different furnace oil prices: Chennai forging Rs 22 a litre, Rajkot forging Rs 25, Rajkot foundries Rs 35, and Pune forging a list of Rs 44 to 52. The profiles do not say why. Re-price any cost per tonne with your own invoice.

The prices, cluster by cluster

• Chennai forging (2014-15): the price table prints furnace oil at Rs 22 a litre. The bill table gives Rs 157 million for 7,140 kilolitres (a kilolitre is 1,000 litres), which is Rs 22.0 a litre. They agree.
• Rajkot forging: the price table prints Rs 25 a litre. Its bill table gives Rs 629 million for 25,163 kilolitres, which is Rs 25.0 a litre. They agree.
• Rajkot foundries (2014-15): the profile prints Rs 35,000 a kilolitre, which is Rs 35 a litre. Its bill gives Rs 45 million for 1,296 kilolitres, which is Rs 34.7 a litre. They agree.
• Pune forging (2011-12): the price table lists Rs 44 to 52 a litre, twice Chennai's or more, three years earlier. But Pune's own bill table works out higher. Rs 841 million for 11,995 tonnes of oil equivalent (toe, a standard yardstick for heat) comes to about Rs 66 to 69 a litre, so Pune disagrees with itself. The cost-of-heat page below shows the sum.
• So four of the five figures are each internally consistent, and the clusters still differ by more than a factor of two.

Why this matters

Every cost per tonne in a profile is a price times a quantity. If you borrow the quantity, a litres-per-tonne figure, and keep the profile's price, your cost is only as good as that price. Using Rs 22 where you pay Rs 50 undercounts oil by more than half.

• At 150 litres a tonne, the profile's own oil furnace figure, Rs 22 gives Rs 3,300 a tonne and Rs 52 gives Rs 7,800.
• Electricity shows a smaller gap. Chennai's price table prints Rs 7 a kilowatt hour (kWh), and its bill, Rs 181 million over 24 million kWh, is Rs 7.54. Rajkot forging prints Rs 8 for high tension supply and Rs 9 for low tension, but its bill, Rs 1,874 million over 262.8 million kWh, works out to Rs 7.13, below both printed tariffs. Oil is where the profiles part most.

What explains it

The profiles do not say. Different years, different sample units and different suppliers are all possible. I cannot prove which from these documents. Treat the rupee columns as a guide to shape, not to level.

What to do in your own file

1. Take litres of furnace oil and the rupees paid from your invoices for the last twelve months and divide. That is your price.
2. Multiply by your litres a tonne, not the cluster's.
3. If you quote a profile, say which table, which year and which price it used.

Example: re-pricing a Chennai cost line

• Profile: 150 litres a tonne x Rs 22 = Rs 3,300 a tonne
• Your invoices: Rs 360,000 for 7,200 litres, so Rs 50 a litre (example numbers)
• Your cost: 150 x 50 = Rs 7,500 a tonne, more than double the profile's
• Same litres, different price. The litres are the part worth comparing.

Prices are TERI's printed or derived figures; the invoice is an example.

What Senseible does here

Senseible reads fuel invoices and electricity bills into monthly records, so litres bought and rupees paid for furnace oil each month are on file. You do the division for your own price per litre. It does not set or forecast prices.

• Furnace oil per tonne: Pune, Rajkot, Chennai
• Pune forging: cost of heat by fuel
• Rajkot foundry totals: do they add up?
• Green loan readiness check

Sources: TERI, Energy profile: Chennai forging industry cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), TERI, Energy profile: Rajkot forging industries (SAMEEEKSHA), TERI, Energy profile: Rajkot foundry cluster (SAMEEEKSHA), TERI, Cluster profile report: Pune forging cluster (SAMEEEKSHA, 2012)

Last reviewed 2026-11-07. Where I divide a bill by a quantity, it is my check on TERI's printed bill, and for Rajkot forging and Rajkot foundries it matches the printed price. Pune's higher figure is my division too. Furnace oil prices have moved since every one of these years; use your own invoices.