New Delhi: State-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) has recorded a nearly three-fold rise in Profit after Tax (PAT) for the April-September period at Rs 5,291 crore, up from Rs 1,863 crore in the corresponding period of the previous financial year. The PAT for Q2 of FY2020-21, on the other hand, has seen over two-fold increase at Rs 2,477 crore, up from Rs 1,052 crore during the same period of the previous fiscal. "The significant improvement in the profitability inspite of challenges, including lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was a result of strategic planning in refinery and marketing operation, containing the de-growth to less than the industry, efficient inventory management and effective product placement leveraging company's excellent marketing infrastructure. This was well supported by reduced operating costs, market conditions on crude pricing and favorable exchange rate variation," said HPCL Chairman MK Surana on Wednesday.
Gross sales revenue stood at Rs 61,340 crore during Q2 versus Rs 66,165 crore for the same period last year, declining by 7.2 percent. Gross sales revenue for the April-September period (H1) was down by 24 percent at Rs 1,07,225 crore as compared to Rs 1,40,694 crore for the corresponding period of the previous financial year.
The nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of the pandemic in India lead to significant demand contraction of petroleum products in April this year and the sales were down by over 48.5 percent as compared to April 2019. However, with the subsequent relaxations announced by the Centre and state governments and the gradual opening up of the economy, the demand for petroleum products picked up sharply. The overall sales of petroleum products reached to the level of 98 percent in September compared to the sales in September 2019.
The domestic sales volume at HPCL during Q2 was 8.10 MMT compared to 8.95 MMT last year, which was 90.5 percent of the last year volume during the same period. The domestic sales for HPCL for the half year April-September 2020 was 15.34 MMT compared to 18.77 MMT, which was 81.7 percent of the sales volume during the same period last year.
During such challenging times, HPCL also achieved an overall combined capacity utilisation of over 100 percent at its refineries by optimising the day-to-day crude run rate and regulating product procurements from other sources. The HPCL refineries processed 8.03 million metric tonnes of crude during April-September, as against 8.48 million metric tonnes during the same period last year. The throughput for the September quarter was 4.06 MMT compared to 4.56 MMT last year.
The combined GRM for Q2 is US$ 5.11 per barrel as compared to US$ 2.83 per barrel in the corresponding previous period. The combined GRM for the half-year April-September 2020 works out to US$ 2.58 per barrel compared to US$ 1.87 per barrel in the corresponding previous period.
HPCL recorded 22.5 percent jump in lube sales during Q2 compared to the same quarter last year and continued to be the largest lube marketer among OMCs. HPCL also exported 9 TMT of lubes during the period and added new geographies to its market reach.
During the quarter, 303 new retail outlets were commissioned, taking the total retail outlet network to 17,171 as of September 30. HPCL also commissioned 37 new LPG distributorships during the quarter, taking the total LPG distributorships to 6,153 at the end of the quarter.
To ensure the availability of alternate fuels and offering more choices to customers, CNG dispensing facilities were commissioned at 103 retail outlets during April-September period, taking the total number of retail outlets with CNG facilities to 574. With the commissioning of 42 mobile dispensing equipment during the period for door-to-door delivery of diesel, the total number of mobile dispensing equipment were enhanced to 60. EV charging facility has been provided at 36 outlets.
Towards promotion of bio fuels in transportation, HPCL continued to participate in ethanol blending programme and achieved an overall ethanol blending percentage of 5.76 percent during H1 as against 5.2 percent during the same period of last year. HPCL has also issued 26 LOIs during the period April to September 2020 for Compressed Bio Gas (CBG), taking the total number of LOIs issued so far to 87, with a production capacity of 157 TMTPA of CBG.
All the projects sites of HPCL are restarted and construction manpower at site has resumed tonear pre-covid levels. Project work is being carried out following all the precautions related to COVID 19 guidelines. HPCL's Visakh Refinery Modernization Project (VRMP) and Mumbai Refinery Expansion Project (MREP) are in advance stages and are likely to be completed in the next calendar year 2021 followed by residue upgradation facilities at Visakh in the calendar year 2022. 9 MMTPA greenfield refinery-cum-petrochemical complex project of HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL) at Barmer has made significant progress.
HPCL further strengthened its LPG supply infrastructure with augmentation of the bottling capacity of Gandhinagar LPG bottling Plant (Gujarat) by 60 TMTPA.
HPCL's major pipeline projects namely Vijayawada – Dharmapuri pipeline, Hassan- Cherlapalli LPG Pipeline and Barmer Palanpur Pipelineare progressing ahead of schedule.
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