State-owned Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) has reported a 50.6 per cent dip in its net profit at Rs 187.4 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2010. BPCL had posted a net profit of Rs 379 crore in the corresponding previous quarter.
BPCL said it got Rs 8,299 crore for the April-December 2010 period as compensation by the upstream oil companies for selling diesel, petrol, kerosene and domestic LPG below market price. In April-December 2009, the company had received Rs 3,672.5 crore towards this.
The average gross refining margin during the nine months was $3.63 per barrel, up from $2.70 a barrel in April-December 2009.
During the quarter, income from operations rose to Rs 39,572.6 crore, up 14 per cent from Rs 34,624.9 crore in the year-ago period, BPCL said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
The scrip was down 2.5 per cent to Rs 584.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange.