IOC profit up despite rise in import and market price difference

New Delhi, May 26 (UNI) The public sector Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has earned higher net profit during the just concluded year 2005-06 at Rs 4915.12 crore as against Rs 4891.38 crore earned in the previous year.

Announcing the company's performance, the IOC Chairman Sarhak Behuria said during the period the company's turnover has also gone up from Rs 131,965.38 crore of the previous year to Rs 152,841.71 crore in 2005-06.

He said the seven IOC refineries closed this year with a record combined crude oil throughput of 38.5 Million Tonnes (MT), surpassing the previous best of 37.7 MT achieved during 2003-04. The combined capacity utilisation stood at 93.1 per cent. This was also the highest in the last six years.

Mr Behuria said the IOC board has given its clearence for a 15 Million Metric Tonnes Per Annum (MMTPA) grassroots refinery-cum-petrochemicals project at Paradip in orissa, together with a pipeline to Ranchi at an estimated cost of Rs 24,000 crore.

Apart from this the Panipat Refinery's capacity will also be doubled from 6 MMTPA to 12 MMTPA and this is due for completion soon.

He said as part of its Rs 30,000 crore investment plan by 2011-12 towards forward integration into petrochemicals, IOC is developing mega petrochemical hubs with world scale plants at panipat in Haryana and Paradip in Orissa.

The company's ParaXylene/ Purified Terephalic Acid (PTA) plant is under commissioning phase. Domestic market tie-ups and a robust logistics plan for movement of PTA Export option to neighbouring countries are also being explored.

Similarly, all the process licensors for the Naptha Cracker complex also coming up at Panipat by the year 2009 are in place. The world class petrochemical hub, as envisaged by IOC, would cater to the requirement of Northern Region as well as other regions.

He said, despite stiff competition from the private players the company maintained its dominance in the downstream sector, selling 49.5 MT of products, including exports of 2 MT, during the year 2005-06. Besides retaining large volume consumers, IOC consolidated its position in the retail segment, opening over 1000 new petro/diesel stations during the year.

The IOC Chairman said that IOC's 9000 Kilo Meter (Km) pipelines network too achieved the highest ever throughput of 45.3 MT in the year 2005-06. The commissioning of the Chennai-Trichy-Maduri product pipeline helped synergise the corporation's marketing operations in the South with its subsidiary, Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL). The 683 Km pipeline traversing Tamil Nadu connects CPCL's Manali refinery to IOC's bulk storage terminals at Trichy, madurai and Sankari, he added.

He further revealed that during the year, the company's cross country pipeline network was expanded by 1296 Km with the commissioning of several other key projects, including the Sidhpur-Sanganer product pipeline, branch pipeline to Ajmer and the Mundra-Churwa crude pipeline. The paradip-Haldia crude oil pipeline to be commissioned soon shall enhance crude oil availability to the IOC refineries in the east, he added.

He said the Research and Development centre of IOC closed the year with 78 product formulations, 14 patents and 41 product approvals from original equipment manufacturers in India and abroad.

With this IOC became the first company in the country and sixth in the world to develop marine oil technologies for shipboard applications.

As the nodal agency of the oil and gas sector for promoting Hydrogen use in the country, the Centre has commissioned Nations's first Hydrogen-CNG dispensing station and trials are underway with five per cent to 30 per cent Hydrogen-CNG blends in selected vehicles.

Responding to another question on the Bio-diesel Mr Behuria said they have developed bio=diesel and it would be sold at a price of Rs 25 per liter. Initially it will be launched at Pune in Maharashtra and negotiations are on for its use in Haryana road busways, he added.

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