MRPL records highest quarterly profit of Rs 1,942 crore

Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd on Wednesday reported its highest quarterly profit in the three month period ended March 31 after it reversed a foreign exchange provision. Its net profit for the fourth quarter of 2016-17 at Rs 1,942 crore was higher than Rs 1,362 crore in the year-ago period, MRPL chairman Dinesh K Sarraf told reporters.

"The profit was higher on two accounts - one because of higher refinery efficiency and two, reversal of foreign exchange provision," he said.

The company reversed Rs 1,597 crore it had provisioned to pay Iran for past oil dues. It happened because MRPL could pay for the dues at the exchange rate prevalent at the time of billing and not at the current level. The dues accumulated for past few years due to banking channels not being available to transmit money to Iran, facing sanctions from the West.

As much as US $2.5 billion of dues were cleared in 2016- 17 after sanctions on Iran were lifted. The company earned US $8.25 on turning every barrel of crude oil in the fourth quarter of 2016-17 as compared to a gross refinery margin of US $8.24 a barrel a year ago, Sarraf said.

The 15 million tonnes refinery processed 4.23 million tonnes of crude oil in the fourth quarter, down from 4.52 MT last year. Lower processing was due to planned shutdown of some units, he said.

Turnover was however up at Rs 18,100 crore, from Rs 13,477 crore. Sarraf said net profit in full 2016-17 fiscal at Rs 3,644 crore too was highest ever annual profit.