Oil bonds buoy IOC net 221%

BS 200 SCORECARD

Buoyed by oil bonds, issued by the government, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has posted 221 per cent jump in net profit to Rs 3,050 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2006 compared with Rs 949 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The country's largest refiner and oil marketing company received approval for oil bonds worth Rs 7,168 crore during the quarter "in lieu of under-realisation suffered by the corporation", a company statement said.

Income shot up 44 per cent to Rs 58,384 crore during the second quarter of 2006-07.

For the first half of the financial year (April-September), IOC's net profit zoomed a whopping 442 per cent to Rs 4,831 crore on the back of the exceptional income of Rs 3,225 crore that accrued from the sale its 20 per cent shareholding in ONGC in April.

IndianOil, however, had a sharp fall in the average gross refinery margin, from $6.05 per barrel to $3.13 owing to inventory re-valuation.

Chairman Sarthak Behuria said the under-recoveries on petrol, diesel, kerosene and LPG during the first half of 006-07 were Rs 2,462 crore (after considering oil bonds of Rs 7,168 crore) against Rs 5,627 crore in the corresponding period last year.

Refinery throughput during the six-month period was at 20.54 million tonne, up from 18.57 million tonne for the same period last year, while pipeline throughput was 24.38 million tonne, up from 22.08 million tonne last year.

The corporation sold products aggregating 25.56 million tonne, which included exports, during the first half of 2006-07.