Indian Oil Q3 net jumps 29% on more margins, inventory gain

New Delhi, Jan 31: State-run Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday posted a 29 per cent increase in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 2016 at Rs 3,994.91 crore, buoyed by higher refinery margins and inventory gains. The largest Indian oil marketer had recorded a profit of Rs 3,095.75 crore in the same quarter a year ago.

The company’s net revenue for the said quarter grew by 19.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,15,645 crore on the back of a growth of over 19 per cent in petroleum products and 12 per cent in petrochemicals.

IOC earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) at Rs 7,949 crore during the quarter in question grew by 48.4 per cent compared with the same quarter last year due to lower purchases of stock in trade. Company Chairman B. Ashok told reporters here that IOC sales jumped to Rs 1,15,161.11 crore from Rs 96,783.11 crore in the October-December period of 2015. Domestic fuel sales during the quarter grew nearly one million tonnes to 20.12 million tonnes, while exports more than doubled to 1.2 million tonnes, he said.

The company had a gross refining margin (GRM) of $7.79 on turning each barrel of crude oil into fuel in the third quarter, as compared with a GRM of $5.96 in the same period of the previous fiscal. Indian Oil refineries processed 16.37 million tonnes of crude oil in the quarter in consideration, up from 14.42 million tonnes. (IANS)