State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Tuesday reported significant recovery of 86 per cent in its first quarter losses for the current fiscal which came down to Rs 3,093 crore against Rs 22,451 crore of the corresponding period, mainly owing to lower unmet under-recovery to the tune of Rs 1,212 crore compared toRs 17,485 crore in the year-ago period.
In addition to this, IOC Chairman R S Butola told media persons that positive growth in the company's petrochemical business and refinery margins during the Q1 period, helped in cutting down the losses.The company earned $1.67 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as compared to a negative gross refining margin of $4.81 in the same period a year ago.
“Our refinery margins are not comparable with industry peers as unlike other companies, refineries and pipelines are separate profit centres for Indian Oil,” Butola said. After taking the margins of two together, IOC had a combined gross refinery margin of $4.23 per barrel in Q1 as against a negative margin of $2.25 a year ago.