HPCL returns to black with Rs 5,827 cr profit after marketing margin boost

State-owned Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) on Monday reported returning to profitability in the September quarter after a boost in marketing margin improved earnings.

It logged a consolidated net profit of Rs 5,826.96 crore in July-September 2023-24. In the year-ago period, the company had a loss of Rs 2,475.69 crore, it said in a stock exchange filing.

The profit was aided by a boost in marketing margins as a freeze on petrol and diesel price revision despite a fall in input crude oil prices helped recover losses incurred when rates were high last year.

Pre-tax earnings from the downstream oil refining and marketing business came at Rs 6,984.60 crore in the second quarter of the current fiscal. In the year-ago period there was a loss of Rs 2,462.57 crore.

Last year, state-owned fuel retailers HPCL, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) froze prices despite a spike in global oil prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This was with a view to insulating consumers from price volatility.

The price freeze led to the three firms incurring losses in the first half of 2022-23 fiscal year (April 2022 to March 2023). HPCL incurred a loss of Rs 15,118.41 crore in April-September 2022. This year, it however posted record earnings of Rs 16,389.55 crore in April-September.

Revenues fell to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in July-September from Rs 1.13 lakh crore last year on lower oil prices.

HPCL said it earned $ 10.49 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in April-September 2023 as compared to a gross refining margin of $ 12.62 in the corresponding period last year.

In the current quarter, the refinery throughput was 5.75 million tonne versus 4.49 million tonne in Q2 FY22-23. Domestic fuel sales rose to 10.08 million tonne in Q2 FY 23-24 from 9.87 million tonne a year back.