HPCL Q2 Results: Returns To Profit At Rs 5,827 Crore, Driven By Boost In Marketing Margins

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.

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

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 USD 10.49 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in April-September 2023 as compared to a gross refining margin of USD 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. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)