IOC First Quarter Profit Nearly Half of 2024-25 Fiscal Earnings
The profit surge was despite inventory losses arising from selling products at rates lower than the price at which input crude oil was bought at, lower refining margins and unpaid LPG subsidy
New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) on Thursday reported more than doubling of its first quarter net profit, as marketing margins surged because of holding retail prices despite a drop in input oil cost. The profit surge was despite inventory losses arising from selling products at rates lower than the price at which input crude oil was bought at, lower refining margins and unpaid LPG subsidy.
According to a stock exchange filing by the company, IOC’s standalone net profit of Rs 5,688.60 crore in April-June — the first quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year — compared to Rs 2,643.18 crore earnings in the same period of the last year. The first quarter profit is nearly half of the company's full 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025) fiscal year earnings of Rs 12,961.57 crore.
Reacting to the firm’s earnings, IOC chairman AS Sahney said that financial year 2024-25 was recorded as a better one when the company achieved highest ever sales of 100 million tonnes as well as highest ever pipeline throughput and marketing expansion. “Besides, in the first quarter, we have also bettered that performance,” the chairman said.
As per the company, refineries processed 18.683 million tonnes of crude oil with 107 per cent capacity utilisation as compared to 18.168 million tonnes in Q1 last year. The firm had highest ever quarterly sales of 26.328 million tonnes while petrochemical sales volume soared 10 per cent to 0.8 million tonnes. “The cracks or the overall pricing difference between input barrels of crude oil and the petroleum products refined were good in the quarter, $4-5 per barrel for petrol and $15-17 for diesel,” he said.
Despite a fall in their benchmark international rates, the earning boost of the oil retailer came from holding retail petrol and diesel prices, leading to a margin boost of the company. The IOC’s pre-tax profit from the downstream petroleum product sale surged to Rs 9,137.96 crore in April-June, from Rs 4,299.96 crore last year.
However, the company earned $2.15 on every barrel of crude oil it processed and turned into fuels like petrol and diesel in Q1, compared to $6.39 per barrel gross refining margin last year. Core GRM after offsetting inventory loss came to $6.91 per barrel. The IOC turnover marginally rose to Rs 1.18 lakh crore in April-June when compared to Rs 2.15 lakh crore in April-June 2024.
