Indian Oil net surged 50% in Q4 to ₹7,265 crore on lower revenue

Indian Oil Corporation Chairman A.S.Sahney briefing media on the financial results in Delhi on Wednesday.

State-owned Indian Oil Corporation reported standalone net profit for March quarter rose 50% to ₹7,265 crore from ₹4,838 crore a year earlier, as revenue from operations declined to ₹2,17,725 crore (₹2,19,876 crore).

The higher net profit came on the back of inventory gains and even as under-recoveries on domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) rose. On a sequential basis, the net profit surged. The company had clocked ₹2,873.53 crore in the December quarter.

The earnings soared as the company processed crude oil bought at lower prices and sold products made from it when prices had risen, resulting in inventory gains. These inventory gains undid ₹5,601 crore of losses on LPG sales and lower refining margins.

The company earned $7.85 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the quarter as compared with $8.39 gross refining margin (GRM) a year ago, IOC chairman A.S. Sahney said in a post-earnings media briefing.

IOC had an inventory gains in Q4 as compared with losses in the previous year, he said without disclosing exact numbers.

For the fiscal ended March, net profit slid to ₹12,962 crore (₹39,619 crore) on lower refining and marketing margins. Revenue from operations for FY25 was lower at ₹8,45,513 crore (₹8,66,345 crore). For FY25, the GRM was $4.80 ($12.05).

₹3 dividend

The company has declared a dividend of ₹3 per equity share (face value of ₹.10 each). Indian Oil shares ended 1.58% higher on Wednesday at ₹137.90 each on the BSE.

During the March quarter, sales volumes, including exports, was 2.6% higher year on year at 25.945 MT, while the refining thruput increased 1.5% YOY to 18.548 million tonnes. The thruput of the oil major’s countrywide pipelines network was 25.777 MT, an increase of 4.8% YoY.

For FY25, refining thruput stood at 71.564 MT while the thruput of the company’s pipelines network was 100.477 MT, the best thus far in any fiscal.

The company said it achieved the highest ever sales volumes of 100.292 million tonnes in FY25 with best ever sales in all segments – petroleum, petrochemicals and gas for the first time. Cross country pipelines of Indian Oil achieved a thruput of 100.477 MT during the fiscal. During the year, the company expanded its pipelines network by 260 km, taking the total pipeline network to more than 20,000 km.

In the notes accompanying the results, the company said under-recoveries on LPG stood at ₹19,926 crore. Accordingly, revenue to this extent has not been recognised.

(With PTI inputs)