Essar Oil Ltd, India's second largest private refiner, today reported a net profit of Rs 226 crore in the September quarter on back of higher refining margins.
The Mumbai-based firm had a loss of Rs 71 crore in July-September quarter of last fiscal.
Essar Oil said its Vadinar refinery in Gujarat earned USD 7.03 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in second quarter of current fiscal as compared to a gross refining margin of USD 6.93 per barrel.
Revenues fell 12 per cent to Rs 24,194 crore as Vadinar processed 3 per cent less crude oil at 5.04 million tonnes.
"The dip in revenues is mainly due to lower crude oil price during the quarter," the company said in a statement.
Essar Oil Managing Director and CEO L K Gupta said: "In spite of a partial planned shutdown of seven days, Vadinar refinery's throughput continues to be above its rated capacity, demonstrating strong ability of the company to sweat its assets in the most optimized yet safe manner. We remain focused towards achieving operational and performance excellence."
Its CFO Suresh Jain said financials for the quarter were impacted on account of decline in cracks or differential between raw material and fuel price, of key products and weakness in oil prices, which is partly offset by operational efficiency and reduction in interest and financial charges due to part dollarization of our debt.
Essar said 52 per cent of its revenue in Q2 came from the domestic market against 44 per cent in same period a year ago. The firm has over 1,400 petrol pumps across the nation, with about 300 in various stages of commissioning.
"With the government announcing deregulation of diesel prices, Essar Oil has begun retail sales of diesel through its retail outlets," the statement said.
At its Raniganj coal-bed methane (CBM) block in West Bengal, current gas production is around 250,000 standard cubic metres per day, which is being sold locally through pipeline and cascades.
"We have drilled 229 wells and laid requisite infrastructure including pipelines to supply CBM Gas to end consumers. Three Gas Gathering Stations (GGS) are complete and one more is under construction," the statement added.
