India’s biggest petrochemical company—one of the biggest in the world—have only you to thank for its big numbers. But even giants like Indian Oil are not immune to the vagaries of the invisible virus, as its first-quarter (April to June 2021) results stand testament to.
IndianOil earned a total revenue of Rs 1.55 lakh crore between April and June this year on selling more than 2 crore tonnes of products, including petrol and diesel—the number also includes exports. The net profit is Rs 5,941 crore.
The PSU giant attributes it to “inventory gains and better petrochemical margins” during the quarter. Even if the average Indian may smirk at that.
“The gross refining margin (GRM) during the first quarter of financial year 2021-22 is $6.58 per barrel as compared to $1.98 per barrel in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year,” said Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, chairman of IndianOil. GRM is essentially the money you make on refining every barrel of crude oil into usable fuel.
“The core GRM for current period after offsetting inventory loss/gain comes to $2.24 per barrel,” Vaidya added.
Of course, despite the bounty due to spiralling prices, the virus has affected the bottom line. While the nearly Rs 6,000 crore profit sounds impressive when compared year-on-year (211 per cent) to last financial year’s first-quarter profit of Rs 1,911 crore, you have to remember that that was the quarter of the infamous national lockdown, when nothing much moved for nearly two months.
However, Indian Oil’s net profit has dropped by 32.3 per cent when compared to the immediate quarter preceding this (January to March 2021). That quarter’s profit was at Rs 8,781 crore and revenue at Rs 1.63 lakh crore.
This can mainly be attributed to the outbreak of the second wave, which reduced demand for petrol, diesel and aviation turbine fuel, particularly in the second half of April and most of May.