Essar Oil Q4 net up 78% at Rs 321 cr

Essar Oil today reported a 78% jump in its fourth quarter ending March 31 to Rs 321 crore, on back of record refinery throughput and higher margins.

"This is a strong financial result driven by record refinery throughput of 14.76 million tonne per annum and a healthy uplift of over 80% in gross refinery margins (GRMs)," Essar Oil CEO and Managing Director Naresh Nayyar told a conference call.

Essar Oil earned $8.15 for turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in January-March quarter as against $5.37 per barrel gross refining margin (GRM) in the same period a year ago.

Revenues soared 24% to Rs 14,846 crore in the fourth quarter.

For the full year FY11, net profit jumped to Rs 654 crore as against Rs 29 crore in the previous year.

"Demand for petroleum products in India is expected to continue to grow sharply and we remain focused on delivering our key projects, which in 2011 includes the first phase of our Vadinar refinery expansion," he said.

Expansion of Vadinar refinery in Gujarat to 18 million tonne per annum is on tract for mechanical completion in Q2 and Q3, 2011 calendar year.

"Optimisation project to enhance refinery capacity to 20 million tonne a year is on track for completion by September, 2012," he said.

Essar Oil has 1,635 petrol pumps, of which 1,381 are operational and 254 are in various stages of construction.

For full year, gross revenues increased 25% to Rs 53,119 crore from Rs 42,402 crore in FY10.

Current price GRM registered an 87% growth to $6.91 per barrel in FY11 from $3.70 a barrel in FY10.

Nayyar said Vadinar refinery continued to operate well above its nameplate capacity of 10.5 million tonne per annum, processing a record 14.76 million tonne of crude oil in FY11, 9% higher than the 13.50 million tonne of crude oil processed during FY10.