IOC's Q3 net zooms to Rs2,959 crore despite Rs56,000 crore under-recovery
30 Jan 2009
Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) third quarter stand-alone net profit surged 41.5 per cent to Rs2,958.59 crore against Rs2,090.69 crore year-on-year even as the state-run oil refiner-retailer expects its total under-recoveries to touch Rs56,000 crore.
Announcing the results Sarthak Behuria, chairman and managing director of Indian Oil Corporation, said he expects under-recovery to be Rs56,000 crore as of date.
''It may go up or down by a thousand depending on how the prices or production of crude look like assuming that the retail prices of any of these products will not change, particularly the four major products. We expect about Rs8,000–9,000 crore to keep us whole,'' he said.
The profit was made possible by the issue of additional oil bonds by the government to compensate part of the inventory losses and lower refining margins.
IOC's gross turnover for the period moved up by 2.6 per cent, to Rs66,399 crore from Rs64,726 crore. The throughput of its pipelines network for the third quarter at 14.48 million tonnes was higher than that of the corresponding quarter of the previous year while the refineries throughput, at 12.04 million tonnes, was close to last year's level.
Net loss for the nine months ended December 2008 was Rs3,673 crore as against a profit of Rs7,377 crore for the same period.
According to Behuria, the under-recovery on account of non-realisation of market-related prices for petrol, diesel, PDS kerosene and LPG (domestic) during the period of nine months ended December 2008 was Rs7,539 crore (after considering upstream discount of Rs18,059 crore and special oil bonds of of Rs34,165 crore) as compared to Rs6,515 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. IOC's gross turnover moved up 27.9 per cent to Rs2,26,662 crore during the period April-December 08 from Rs1,77,223 crore for the corresponding period of the previous year.
IOC sold 48.91 million tonnes of products, including exports, during the period April-December 08. The throughput of its refineries and pipelines network was 36.60 million tonnes and 43.86 million tonnes respectively for the same period, he said.