IOC net drops 47% in Q1 as refinery margins slump

State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on Wednesday reported a 47% drop in its first quarter net profit due to a slump in refinery margins.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,737.50 crore during the quarter ending June 2019, as compared to a net profit of Rs 7,092.42 crore during the corresponding period last year, the company said in a regulatory filing. The revenue reported was almost flat at Rs 1.53 lakh crore in the first quarter.

The company earned $4.69 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in April-June of this financial year, down from $10.21 per barrel average gross refining margin in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal year. Further, the company had a foreign exchange gain of Rs 91.75 crore in the April-June period, as compared to Rs 1,804.85 crore forex loss in the previous year.

IOC and its partner Adani Gas Ltd have plans to invest about Rs 9,600 crore in rolling out infrastructure for retailing CNG to automobiles and piped natural gas to household kitchens in 10 cities for which they recently won licenses for, the state-run company said on Monday. The two firms in 2013 had incorporated a 50:50 joint venture company, IndianOil-Adani Gas Pvt Ltd (IOAGPL), for implementation of city gas distribution (CGD) projects in various cities in the country.

Over the years, IOAGPL participated in various bid rounds for city gas license conducted by Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board.

As on date, it has licenses for 19 geographical areas (GAs), IOC said in a notice to shareholders.

The City gas distribution (CGD) projects, which entail retailing CNG to automobiles and marketing piped natural gas to household kitchens for cooking as well as to industries for use as fuel, are typically long duration projects wherein demand build-up is gradual and revenue generation becomes appreciable only in the later years.

The funding required for capital expenditure has to be met from equity contribution/debt financing, it said.

Sanjiv Singh, chairman of IOC in the company's annual report, said that IOC will be implementing a Rs 2 lakh crore investment plan in the next 5-7 years to make itself future-ready. Besides the focus on refinery expansion, new technologies for clean fuels and enhanced outputs, and refinery petrochemical integrations, the company will also be aggressively leveraging its R&D expertise to move into horizon technologies like 2G and 3G ethanol, biofuels and coal gasification, H-CNG, Hydrogen fuel cells, battery technology, etc.

Singh further added that IOC aspires to be a major player in natural gas with leadership in the R-LNG segment and is taking steps to enhance its share in the LNG sourcing, import terminals, cross country pipelines, city gas distribution networks, and bulk supplies by road tankers. The company is targeting its own equity oil and gas of 7 MMTPA from its upstream portfolio by the year 2023-24 from 4.39 MMTPA currently and is continuously on the lookout for acquisition of stakes both in E&P companies as well as individual assets.