Oil firms' bottomlines to grow 30% in 2003-04

Boosted by high international prices of crude oil and record refining margins, the state-owned oil companies are expected to post a hefty 30 per cent increase in net profit during the current financial year.

Profits are likely to touch around Rs 30,230 crore for 2003-04 according to industry sources. That's up from Rs 23,254.6 crore the year before when the petroleum sector was deregulated. In 2001-02 before deregulation the oil giants had combined profits ot Rs 12,708 crore.

While the upstream oil companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India Limited (OIL) have gained this year from runaway international prices of crude oil, the downstream companies such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) have benefited from the unusually high refining margins throughout the year.

Since the two exploration PSUs get the import parity price for the 28. 5 million tonnes of crude oil produced by them, every $1 a barrel increase in the international price of crude results in around a Rs 1,000 crore jump in turnover. The average price of the Indian basket of crude (comprising Oman/Dubai crude for sour grade and Brent-dated for sweet grade in 57:43 ratio) for the current financial year so far comes to $27.86 a barrel which is slightly over a dollar more than last year's average price of $26.59 a barrel.