The country’s second-largest private refiner, Essar Oil, said on Tuesday it had got approval to raise up to $2.2 billion through external commercial borrowings. The company that expects its revenue to touch Rs 1,00,000 crore by the next financial year has posted a net profit of Rs 32 crore for the third quarter of the financial year 2012-13 ended on December 31, against a net loss of Rs 362 crore during the same period last year. The profit was mainly due to higher refining margin and larger processing of ultra-heavy crude oil.
During the quarter, Essar also saw an 86 per cent rise in gross revenue to Rs 25,909 crore, compared with Rs 13,897 crore in the third quarter of 2011-12. The Ebitda was also up 8.4 times at Rs 1,242 crore during the quarter compared with Rs 148 crore in Q3 FY12.
For the October-December quarter its current price gross refining margin stood at $9.75 per barrel, up 350 per cent compared to $2.82 per barrel last year reflecting higher complexity benefits post completion of expansion and optimization projects.
“Our EBITDA and PAT would have been higher by Rs 260 crore in this quarter if not for the foreign exchange gain accounted in the previous quarter which showed up as lower sales realization during the quarter,” said Suresh Jain, chief financial officer, Essar Oil.
Meanwhile, the company is in talks with banks to raise ECBs as it got approvals from the apex bank to raise up to $2.2 billion, in order to partially cover its debt of $2.8 billion. “We have not finalized the amount. But talks are going on with banks and will come out with the details once it is finalised. However, no timeline is set in this regard,” said LK Gupta, EOL’s managing director and chief executive officer.
For the second quarter, the company’s Vadinar Refinery processed 5.14 million tonne (mt) of crude, up 83 per cent from 2.81 MMT during the same period. EOL said that it will continue to focus on domestic market as the sales contribution from local market is contributing about 60 per cent to its revenues during the quarter. It has more than 1400 retail outlets across the country with another 200 are on various stages of operation.
On the other hand, gas production at its flagship coal-bed methane block in Ranigunj has touched 55,000 standard cubic metres per day (scmd) versus 30,000 scmd a year ago. The company has completed drilling 120 wells, while environment clearance for 618 wells is in progress. “A pipeline is already in place to supply gas from the site. Our major client from the region will be Matix Fertilisers and Chemicals,” Gupta added.
