State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corp ltd (HPCl) on Friday reported 56 per cent drop in the June quarter net profit on account huge inventory losses. The net profit of the company in the April-June quarter was Rs 925 crore, lower than Rs 2,098 crore in the year-ago period.
“Our net profit in the April-June quarter was Rs 925 crore, lower than Rs 2,098 crore in the year-ago period due to decrease in crude prices as against inventory gains. We had an inventory loss of Rs 1,595 crore in first quarter of current fiscal as compared to an inventory gain of Rs 1,935 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal,” HPCl Chairman and Managing Director MK Surana told reporters here.
“The company earned $5.86 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel during April-June, 2017-18 as compared to a gross refining margin of $6.83 per barrel in the same period of 2016-17,” he said.
Revenue soared to Rs 59,891 crore from Rs 51,600 crore in the first quarter of the previous year. “HPCl’s Mumbai and Visakh refineries processed 4.49 million tonnes of crude oil in the quarter, almost unchanged from the previous year. Both the refineries are supplying 100 per cent of BS-IV grade (Euro-IV emission norm compliant) petrol and diesel with effect from April 1, 2017,” the HPCl chief said.
For the 2017-18, HPCl plans to invest about Rs 7,100 crore, while its debt has reduced to Rs 12, 200 in quarter ended in June 30 from Rs 21,250 crore in previous quarter ended in March 31.
HPCl recorded highest ever market sale of 9.20 million tons of fuel in the quarter, 3.5 per cent higher than 8.89 million tons in Q1 of previous fiscal. “The market sales growth of 3.5 per cent is higher than industry (PSU plus private) growth of 3.4 per cent. In the PSU category, HPCl has gained market share of 0.20 per cent,” he said, adding petrol sales rose 9 per cent while diesel was up 2.5 per cent.
Inventory losses arose because the price of basket of crude India buys, known as Indian Basket, dropped by $4.56 per barrel during April-June as against increase of $10.89 a barrel in the same period of 2016.
Surana said 83 petrol pumps were commissioned during Q1 taking the total retail outlet network to 14,495. Electronic data capture (EDC) services and mobile wallets for digital transactions are available at more than 96 per cent of the total retail fuel stations as of June.
The expansion of the company’s joint venture refinery at Bhatinda in Punjab has been completed raising the capacity to 11.3 million tons from 9 million tons.