BPCL slips into red in Q1 on holding fuel prices

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Wednesday reported a net loss of Rs 3,962 crore in the June quarter on keeping petrol, diesel and LPG prices way below cost that had soared due to the West Asia crisis.

The net loss of Rs 3,962.13 crore in April-June - the first quarter of the current 2026-27 fiscal year - compared with a profit of Rs 3,333.97 crore in the same period a year back, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.

BPCL and other state-owned fuel retailers - Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) - held petrol and diesel prices steady for two-and-a-half months despite a more than 50 per cent surge in prices of crude oil - the raw material for making petrol and diesel - after the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28 and Tehran retaliated.

And when these companies increased prices by over Rs 7.50 a litre in the second half of May, it wasn’t enough to cover for the cost. The cooking gas price increase of Rs 89 per 14.2-kg cylinder too was a fifth of the required hike.

The losses on fuel sales, which BPCL did not quantify, negated the gains the company made on refinery margins.

“The loss...is mainly due to suppressed marketing margin on certain petroleum products which was partially offset by higher refining margin,” it said.

The company did not disclose the margins it earned on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuels like petrol and diesel.

For LPG, it said the company booked an under-recovery of Rs 3,485.22 crore during Q1. This on top of unpaid LPG subsidy of Rs 12,318.52 crore as of March 31, 2026.

Revenue from operations rose to Rs 1.59 lakh crore in April-June from Rs 1.35 lakh crore last year.

The company sold 13.62 million tonnes of petroleum products in the quarter, down marginally from 13.86 million tonnes last year. Its refineries turned 10.15 million tonnes of crude oil into fuel, down from 10.40 million tonnes in Q1 2025-26.