The Hindu Business Line : HPCL making marginal profit on sale of petrol

After the recent easing of global crude oil prices, state-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd is making a marginal profit on domestic sales of petrol.

"As of now, on an average we are making a profit of about 88 paise per litre on the sale of petrol,'' Mr M.B. Lal, Chairman and Managing Director, HPCL, told newspersons.

He said HPCL was losing about Rs 191 on every 14.2 kg cylinder of cooking gas, and Rs 19 on a litre of kerosene. "We are losing about Rs 5.90 a litre on sale of diesel,'' he said at the sidelines of a function here.

The public sector oil marketing companies have not been allowed to raise petroleum product prices in line with global crude oil rates as part of Government attempts to cushion domestic consumers from the fluctuations in the international crude prices.

India, which imports 70 per cent of the oil, raised retail petrol prices by 9.2 per cent and diesel prices by 6.6 per cent in June, the second time after September 2005, while crude oil rose by 12.3 per cent between the two price hikes.

ONGC

Speaking at the same event, Oil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd, Chairman and Managing Director, Mr R.S. Sharma, said he expects crude sales subsidies to state-run refiners to total around Rs 5,100 crore in the second quarter of the current financial year. ONGC subsidises its crude sales to state-run refiners, as per Government instructions to share the burden of oil product subsidies with state-run oil marketing companies.

``Our share of subsidies in the first quarter was about Rs 5,100 crore. We haven't got any instructions yet for how much we will have to pay in subsidies in the second quarter. But I expect it to be in line with the first quarter, because in the bulk of the second quarter, global crude prices remained high,'' he said.

Asked about his forecast on ONGC's earnings in the second quarter, he said a recent shutdown at the company's Hazira gas processing terminal could have a marginal impact on profitability. ``But overall, we should just be doing fine. There's no reason to worry as crude prices have remained high during the period,'' he said.