Indian Oil reports ₹8,781 cr net profit in March quarter
NEW DELHI: Indian Oil Corp. Ltd (IOC), India’s biggest oil firm, on Wednesday reported a net profit of ₹8,781.30 crore for the January-March quarter, helped by higher refining margins.
The standalone net profit in January-March was ₹8,781.30 crore, or ₹9.56 a share, compared with a loss of ₹5,185.32 crore in the same period a year back, the company said in a statement.
Revenue from operation jumped to ₹1.63 lakh crore from ₹1.39 lakh crore last year.
The company sold more petroleum products in the fourth quarter of 2020-21 fiscal at 21.2 million tonnes as opposed to 20.69 million tonnes in the previous year.
For the fourth quarter of FY21, the Maharatna company’s product sales volumes, including exports was 22.591 million tonnes. The refining throughput was 17.592 million tonnes and the throughput of its countrywide pipelines network was 21.849 million tonnes during the same period, the statement added.
The Board of Directors of IOC have declared a final dividend of ₹1.50 per equity share.
Domestic sales of gasoil and gasoline by Indian state refiners plunged by a fifth in the first half of May from a month earlier, preliminary data showed on Monday, as lockdowns to curb Covid-19 cases hit industrial activities and consumption. read more
“Demand destruction is there, which has also reflected in refinery runs... When it (fuel demand) will return to normalcy is a very difficult question to answer,” Chairman SM Vaidya said, pinning recovery hopes on the country’s vaccination drive against the pandemic.
The company, along with subsidiary Chennai Petroleum (CHPC.NS), controls about a third of India’s 5 million-barrels-per-day (bpd) refining capacity.
In May last year, the stateowned refiner was operating its plants at an average 67%, Vaidya said.
Still, a surge in crude prices boosted inventory gains and gross refined margins (GRMs) at IOC, helping it report a net profit of 87.81 billion Indian rupees ($1.20 billion) for the quarter ended March 31, against a loss of ₹51.85 billion a year ago.
Analysts were expecting a profit of ₹55.06 , according to Refinitiv IBES data.
IOC’s GRM —the difference between the cost of crude oil processed and the selling price of refined products — was $10.60 per barrel against minus $9.64 a year ago.