Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) recorded a net profit of ₹361.96 crore in the first quarter of 2018-19 as against a net profit of ₹234.21 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal, registering a growth of 54.55 per cent.
Addressing presspersons here, Shashi Shanker, Chairman of MRPL and ONGC, said that there has been growth in the gross refining margin (GRM) during the quarter helping the company to register this profit.
The GRM for the quarter stood at $8.28 a barrel during the first quarter of 2018-19 as against $4.74 a barrel during the first quarter of 2017-18. It worked out to a GRM of ₹1,567 crore (₹894 crore).
(GRM is the difference between crude oil price and total value of petroleum products produced by the refinery.)
M Venkatesh, Managing Director, said that the secondary processing units were better utilised during the quarter.
The refining throughput of MRPL stood at 3.85 million tonnes during the quarter as against 3.98 million tonnes during the first quarter of 2017-18.
The company achieved a turnover of ₹16,573 crore during the quarter as against ₹14,491 crore during the first quarter of 2017-18. Of this, the share of exports stood at ₹4,326 crore (₹2,874 crore).
US sanctions on Iran
To a query on MRPL’s plan of action in the case of sanctions by US on Iran, Shanker said the company will not be able to share the details as of now. The company sourced around 30 per cent of crude oil from Iran in 2017-18.
On the proposed merger of MRPL and HPCL, Shanker said there is a good synergy between MRPL and HPCL. “At this point in time at the group level we are trying to explore how best we can exploit the benefits of this merger,” he said.