IOC, HPCL, BPCL likely to post losses

Our Corporate Bureau
06 July 2005

New Delhi: Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp are likely to post their first-ever loss in the first quarter (April-June) of the current year, as domestic fuel prices have not kept pace with rising international prices.

IOC's net profit in the April-June quarter depends on the extent to which other public sector oil firms share the burden of selling petroleum. I

if upstream companies do not share losses on petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene, IOC will post a net loss of Rs 1,800 crore in the first quarter.

The Ministry of Petroleum is in consultations with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Oil India Ltd (OIL), Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL) and other private companies over sharing the burden of der-recoveries.

According to estimates, under-recoveries for oil marketing companies in the first quarter would be close to Rs 10,000 crore and as IOC has the larger share of the market, it might lose around Rs 4,900 crore in the first quarter.