Reliance Industries Ltd, the country’s biggest private sector company, has reported a 4.5 per cent increase in net profit (on a standalone basis) to ₹5,742 crore for the quarter that ended on September 30, on account of higher gross refining margins (GRM).
The GRM is the differential between the cost of a barrel of crude oil and the price at which its processed output can be sold in the market. The company’s GRM for the quarter stood at $8.3 per barrel as against $7.7 barrel in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.
On the other hand, net sales for the quarter dipped 7 per cent to ₹96,486 crore from ₹1,03,758 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Alok Agarwal, Chief Financial Officer of RIL, told mediapersons on Monday that the quarter saw international crude decline by $6, which was reflected at the turnover level. In the refining business, the crude throughput for the quarter has been higher than in the previous quarter.
Refining margins were affected by a decline in the price of crude oil, which, however, helped in reducing fuel costs for the company. RIL also benefited from the lower prices of both light and heavy crude, he said.
Agarwal said that the company’s upstream business has been flat, with no major developments. The shale gas business has also been flat, due to lower oil and gas prices in the international market, he said.
Capex He added that the company spent ₹45,000 crore as capital expenditure in the first six months of the current fiscal year and another ₹60,000 crore would be spent in the next six months.
The company, in a statement, said that second-quarter revenue from the petrochemicals segment declined marginally Y-o-Y to ₹26,651 crore.
In the same statement, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, said: “RIL’s financial performance for the period stands testimony to the intrinsic strength of our integrated business operations. The refining and petrochemical businesses, once again, delivered robust results, outperforming regional industry benchmarks.”