Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) today reported net loss of Rs 360 crore in the third quarter ended December, 2012 as refinery margins slumped.
MRPL, a subsidiary of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), posted a net loss of Rs 360 crore in October-December as against a net profit of Rs 110 crore in the same period a year ago, company Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva told reporters here.
The company earned $1.89 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel as against a gross refining margin (GRM) of $7.24 per barrel in the same quarter last year.
"The GRM has been lower during the quarter mainly on account of inventory loss," he said, adding that MRPL in Q3 suffered an inventory loss of Rs 257 crore.
Inventory loss occurs when a company buys product at high price but is forced to sell the finished goods at lower rate.
"In addition the impact of all the secondary processing units of Phase-III projects not becoming operational, resulting in increase of product export with lesser realisation and the capitalised units depreciation, interest cost being charged to revenue," he said.
Turnover incrased to Rs 18,758 crore from Rs 13,647 crore in Q3 last year. The refinery processed 3.81 million tonnes of crude oil as comapred to 3.04 million tonnes a year ago.
MRPL, he said, will fully commission its single point mooring (SPM) system that will allow it to handle very large crude oil vessels giving it better cost efficiency, by the end of February.
Company Managing Director P P Upadhya said MRPL will import 3.8 million tonnes of crude oil from Iran this fiscal as compared to the earlier target of 100,000 bpd.
