Country's largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) reported a net profit of Rs6,285 crore during the period ending March 31, 2015. Despite steep fall in crude prices for a major part of FY15, the company earned $8.77 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the January-March quarter, as opposed to a gross refining margin (GRM) of $2.17 per barrel in the same period of 2013-14.
IOC's refineries processed 53.6 million tonnes of crude oil in 2014-15 as compared to 53.1 million tonnes in the previous fiscal, the company's Chairman B Ashok told reporters on Friday, while addressing a press conference to announce the IOC's financial and corporate performance during FY15.
Its fuel sales rose to 71.8 million tonnes in 2014-15, from 70 million tonnes in 2013-14, with petrol (8.3 million tonnes) and diesel (34.5 million tonnes) leading the charge. Also IOC added 950 retail outlets to take total number of petrol pumps to 18,175 and 6,230 mini-petrol pumps called Kisan Seva Kendra.
Mindful of competition from potential competitors (with MRPl also announcing its foray into retail sale of petrol), the IOC Chairman said that the company has over the years vastly expanded its network across the country and in fact it has 7,000 outlets in rural India.
However, there was a 33 per cent dip in net profit for the March quarter mainly on account of a lump sum subsidy it had received in the comparable quarter of the previous fiscal. Net profit in Q4 of 2014-15 was Rs6,285.35 crore, 33 per cent lower than Rs9,389.85 crore, IOC said.