State-owned oil market Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has reported net profit of ₹1,735 crore for the September quarter, more than double the ₹701-crore in the year-ago period.
The company attributed the increase in profit to higher crude throughput, better refinery margins, higher domestic market sales and inventory gains.
Gross sales for the period stood at ₹54,153 crore compared with ₹47,750 crore last year. Domestic sales of petroleum products increased to 8.37 million tonnes registering a growth of 4.6 per cent.
The refineries at Mumbai and Visakhapatnam processed 4.64 million tonnes of crude during July-September against 4.04 million tonnes last year.
The combined gross refining margin was $7.61 per barrel compared to $3.23 per barrel in the previous period primarily due to improved distillate yield and better product cracks.
A total of 216 new retail outlets were commissioned during the first half of 2017-18, taking the total retail outlet network to 14,628 as of September 2017.
Shares of HPCL closed down 0.92 per cent at ₹431.30 on the BSE on Thursday.