Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Malaysia’s state-owned Petronas propose to expand their Indian joint venture into retail sales of transportation fuel.

The joint venture, Indian Oil Petronas Pvt Ltd (IPPL), will set up petrol pumps and get into the city gas distribution system, IOC Chairman Shrikant Vaidya said addressing a press conference on first quarter results.

A decision to this effect was taken at the Board meeting and now finer details will be worked out. “Energy pie is increasing. There is a place for everybody..our market share is intact and IPPL will capture new opportunities,” Vaidya said when asked if the IPPL’s foray into retailing business would adversely impact the IOC’s business.

IOC’s net profit grew 211 per cent in the first quarter this fiscal at ₹5,941 crore owing to inventory gains and better petrochemicals margins during the current period. It is worth noting that sequentially the April-June 2021 net profit has declined by 32 per cent from ₹8,781 crore registered in the previous quarter.

In the April-June quarter last year, the company had reported net profit of ₹1,911 crore.

Revenue rises

Revenue from operations for the first quarter stood at ₹1,55,056 crore against ₹88,939 crore in the same period of the last year, an IOC release said. Also, in the previous quarter, the revenue from operations stood at ₹1,63,605 crore.

“Indian Oil sold 20.325 million tonnes of products, including exports, during the first quarter of financial year 2021-22. Our refining throughput for Q1 2021-22 is 16.719 million tonnes and the throughput of the Corporation’s countrywide pipelines network is 19.875 million tonnes during the same period,” he said.

Vaidya further added that the gross refining margin (GRM) during the first quarter of FY 2021-22 is $6.58 per bbl as compared to $1.98in the corresponding quarter of previous financial year. The core GRM for the current period after offsetting inventory loss/ gain comes to $2.24 per bbl.

In addition, Vaidya said no major shutdown has been planned for refineries this year, except Paradip refinery which is scheduled for shutdown next month.

“Fuel prices are high due to taxes. There is no impact on gasoline sales because of prices as people are using more private transport due to Covid,” Vaidya said. He further added that IOC’s refineries will start operating at 100 per cent capacity in a quarter. He also stated that the gasoline demand has recovered to pre-Covid level.

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