Indian Oil Q3 Results: Profit Falls 21% As Expenditure Jumps

Indian Oil Corp.’s quarterly profit fell on higher raw material and finance costs, and an increase in higher taxes.

Net profit fell 21% over the previous quarter to Rs 4,916.6 crore, according to its exchange filing. That compares with the Rs 4,700-crore consensus estimate of analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Total expenditure rose 29% sequentially.

Revenue rose 24.2% quarter on quarter to more than Rs 1.06 lakh crore. Analysts had pegged the metric at Rs 98,732 crore.

Highlights (QoQ)

• Operating profit rose 2.1% to Rs 9,621.9 crore.
• Other income fell 17.4% to Rs 1,269.5 crore.
• Operating margin contracted to 9.05% from 11.01%.
• Gross refining margin—what a company earns by converting one barrel of crude into fuel—stood at $2.96 a barrel (average for the period April-December 2020). Benchmark Singapore gross refining margin recovered from $0.1 per barrel in the second quarter to $1.2 per barrel in the third.

Refining utilisation rate improved to 102% in December from 53% during the Covid-19 lockdown, which could lower fixed costs and support operating income.

Brent crude oil price rose 4.4% sequentially to an average of $44.6 a barrel in the third quarter.