An Indian Oil tanker driver waits outside a fuel depot in Mumbai, India, October 6, 2017.
Credit: Reuters File Photo
New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Tuesday reported a return to profitability with a net profit of 12,967.32 crore in the three months to September 30 - more than half of its best-ever annual profit in just one quarter.
The net profit—which came on the back of a boost in refining and marketing margin—compared to a loss of Rs 272.35 crore in July-September 2022, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.
Besides robust refining margins, the profit was aided by a boost in marketing margins as a freeze on petrol and diesel price revision despite a fall in input crude oil prices helped recover losses incurred when rates were high last year.
Pre-tax earnings from the sale of petroleum products soared to Rs 17,755.95 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal compared to Rs 104.04 crore in the same period last year.
Last year, state-owned fuel retailers IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) froze prices despite a spike in global oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This was with a view to insulate consumers from price volatility.
The price freeze led to the three firms incurring losses in the first half of the 2022-23 fiscal (April 2022 to March 2023). IOC incurred a loss of Rs 2,264.88 crore in April-September 2022. This year, it, however, posted record earnings of Rs 26,717.76 crore in April-September 2023, more than the Rs 24,184 crore record net profit the company had posted in 2021-22.
Its revenues fell to Rs 2.02 lakh crore in July-September from Rs 2.28 lakh crore last year on lower oil prices.
IOC said it earned USD 13.12 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in April-September 2023 against a gross refining margin of USD 25.49 in the corresponding period last year. It did not give quarterly refining margins.
The company sold 21.941 million tonnes of petroleum products in the September quarter, up from 21.562 million tonnes last year but lower than 23.305 million tonnes sales in the preceding quarter.
Its refineries processed 17.772 million tonnes of crude oil into fuel during July-September, up from 16.1 million tonnes last year.
IOC said its board of directors declared an interim dividend of Rs 5 per share for the current fiscal.