Country’s largest fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Friday reported a 42 per cent drop in consolidated profit before tax (PBT) at Rs 3,204.4 crore for the first quarter of the current financial year as against Rs 5,482.35 crore during the April to June period of 2019-20 owing to low fuel demand.

The company's revenue from operations for the quarter ended on June 30 this year was down 41 per cent at Rs 90,106.48 crore, compared to Rs 152,497.06 crore during the April to June quarter of the last financial year. The inventory loss for the quarter under review was Rs 3,196 crore as against an inventory gain of Rs 2,362 crore during the first quarter of 2019-20. This translates to $3.05 a barrel loss during the quarter versus $3.92 a barrel gain during the same time last year.

The gross refining margin (GRM) during the first quarter of 2020-21 was minus (-) $1.98 a barrel as compared to $4.69 a barrel in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The core GRM for the current period after offsetting inventory loss/ gain comes to $4.27 a barrel. The company sold 16.504 million tonnes (MT) of products, including exports, during the first quarter of the financial year 2020-21. Its refining throughput for the quarter under review was seen at 12.930 MT and the throughput of the countrywide pipelines network was 15.017 MT during the same period.

Among the products, the sale of petrol was down by 36 per cent during the quarter, while that of diesel was 35 per cent lower compared to the same time last year, owing to the reduction in sales due to the Covid-19 lockdown and travel restrictiions. Aided by the distribution of free liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders to Ujjwala consumers, sales of LPG registered a double digit growth of 15.2 per cent during the quarter.

"Ïn terms of sales and refining capacity, we will not be back to the normal in the near future. Our refineries are operating at 75 per cent capacity and I expect it to remain in that range of 70-75 per cent for the rest of the financial year," said S M Vaidya, chairman of IOC. He added that the company expects the international crude oil prices to be in the range of around $40 a barrel during the second quarter and second half of the financial year.

For 2020-21, the company has lined up a capital expenditure of Rs 26,000 crore and out of this, Rs 2,675 crore was achieved during the first quarter of the fiscal. Vaidya said that IOC has no plans to bring down the capex for the year.