State-owned ONGC’s subsidiary Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals ltd (MRPl) plans to enter into the fuel retailing business and will open 100 petrol pumps. Though the time line for kick starting the project is not finalised, the company will roll out the ambitious plan soon. Meanwhile, the company has reported a 9.6 per cent rise in its fourth quarter net profit. Net profit in January-March quarter stood at Rs1,169.70 crore, or Rs6.67 per share, compared with Rs1,067.04 crore, or Rs6.09 a share, in the corresponding period.
MRPl Chairman DK Sarraf told media persons on Friday that the company which has a licence to set up 500 petrol pumps, had in 2010 decided to foray into fuel retailing but the market turned inconducive as standalone refineries like MRPl were not entitled Government subsidy and couldn’t compete with PSU retailers. The plan was put on cold storage but with deregulation of petrol and diesel “we feel this is the right time MRPl should re-enter the retailing business,” he said.
Sarraf, who is also the Chairman and Managing Director of MRPl’s parent, ONGC, said the retailing will start this fiscal but did not give a time frame for setting up 100 petrol pumps. ONGC also has a licence to set up 1,100 petrol pumps but it has decided not to do retailing in its own, he said, adding that within the ONGC Group 1,600 outlets can be set up. “We had an excellent quarter with a record crude throughput (processing) of 4.12 million tonnes,” Sarraf said.
Also, the company had a foreign exchange gain of Rs168 crore. It earned good refining margin, earning $8.56 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in Q4 as compared to a gross refining margin of $3.18 a barrel in the same quarter the previous year. “2014-15 was a very difficult year for refineries and global oil prices slid. Refineries bought crude oil at one price, only to find its value drop the very next day leading to inventory valuation loss,” he added.