India's crude oil imports this year will increase by almost 7 per cent to 87.617 million tonnes as against 82 million tonnes crude imported in 2002-03, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

"During 2002-03, a quantity of about 82 million tonnes of crude oil was imported at the cost of $15.759 billion [Rs 76,195 crore (Rs 761.95 billion)]," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Sumitra Mahajan said.

She said the crude oil processing for 2003-04 is estimated at 116.678 million tones, while the crude oil imports are estimated at 87.617 million tonnes.

To another question, Mahajan said India's largest crude oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation would produce 26.39 million tonnes of crude in 2003-04 as against 26.01 million tonnes crude produced in 2002-03.

ONGC's gas production would, however, decline to 23.32 billion cubic metres this fiscal, from 24.24 billion cubic metres last year.