Bharat Petroleum Corporation has reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 2,872.77 crore for the first quarter of FY22. This is 31.31 per cent higher than the Rs 2,187.74 crore consolidated net reported by the company in the comparable quarter of financial year 2020-21.
Total income during the period under review stood at Rs 90,131.33 crore, up from Rs 51,446.23 crores reported in the first quarter of financial year 2020-21.
BPCL’s gross refining margin (GRM) stood at $4.12 per barrel in the first quarter of financial year 2021-22 as against $0.39 per barrel in the same quarter of financial year 2020-21. ICICI Direct Research has estimated that BPCL’s margins will average at $3.9 a barrel for FY22 and $4.5 for FY23.
BPCL said that total market sales stood at 9.63 million tonnes (MT) in the first quarter of financial year 2021-22, while refinery throughput at Mumbai and Kochi refineries was 6.84 MT. Commenting on the status of Ethanol blending with fuel, BPCL said, “We have achieved our highest ever Average Ethanol Blending percentage of 8.95 per cent during the quarter.”
BPCL also said that it added 129 New Fuel Stations in the quarter ended June 2021, taking their network strength to 18,766. The company’s LPG distributor network strength increased by 5 to 6,169 and the customer base increased to 85.9 million. Eight Compressed Natural Gas stations were commissioned in this period.
Commenting on company performance, V R K Gupta, Chief Financial Officer at BPRL said, “The first quarter of the new financial year was marred by the second wave of Covid-19 that impacted the fuel sales across India. The restrictions imposed by state administration and subdued business activity resulted in slowdown of economic growth restricting movement of vehicles. However, impact of second wave was not as bad as first wave of Covid-19.”
“Improvements in the crack in the international market is reflected in our quarterly Gross Refinery Margin which has shown significant improvement as compared to corresponding quarter of previous year. Acquisition of 36.60 per cent of stake held by Oman Oil in Bharat Oman Refinery (BORL) by BPCL was completed during the quarter resulting in full control on BORL by BPCL,” Gupta said.
“The business activities have accelerated and so have fuel sales. We believe with vaccination in progress, the resumption in economic activities is likely to sustain this time around,” he added.
Strategic sale bound BPCL has been consistently getting a ‘buy’ rating across brokerages. Shares of BPCL closed 0.38 per cent lower at Rs 448.20 a scrip on Thursday. The Union Cabinet has also relaxed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules to ease the sale of BPCL with a goal to complete the disinvestment during the current financial year.
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