NRL profit Rs 569 crore, highest output

Guwahati, Sep 15: The Numaligarh Refinery Limited(NRL) has earned a profit of Rs 569 crore besides recording the highest ever output of 20.504 lakh tonnes in the current fiscal.

Addressing the 14th annual general meeting of the NRL here yesterday, NRL chairman Ashok Sinha, also the chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited(BPCL), declared the highest ever dividend of 32.33 per cent of post tax profit.

The resolution of declaring a dividend of Rs 2.50 per share for 2006-07 which is higher by 31.58 per cent compared to last year's dividend of Rs 1.90 per share, was adopted in the meeting.

Consequently, the total dividend to be paid by the NRL for the fiscal 2006-07 to its stakeholders, BPCL(61.65 per cent), Oil India Limited(26 per cent) and Assam government (12.35 per cent) amounts to Rs 183.91 crores.

The Assam government would receive Rs 22.71 crore as dividend for its equity in the NRL.

During 2006-07, the NRL also contributed Rs 310.01 crores to the Assam Exchequer towards taxes and duties.

The NRL surpassed all previous records and achieved creditable growth in almost all spheres of its activities. The sales turnover witnessed a growth of 36.25 per cent to touch a level of Rs 7930.32 crore compared to Rs 5820.37 crore during the previous year. The profit after tax at Rs 568.80 crore was also the highest achieved as against the previous highest of Rs 448.93 crore during 2005-06, registering a growth of 26.70 per cent.

The meeting was attended by NRL Managing Director B K Das and other directors of the refinery.

The rise in profit compared to the previous year was mainly due to higher capacity utilisation and higher realisation of prices. It was further supplemented by an improved product mix on account of commissioning of the Motor Spirit plant. By optimising operations and fine tuning business systems, the refinery was able to process 2.504 MMT of crude oil during 2006-07 as against 2.133 MMT in the previous year which is the highest ever recorded since commissioning of the refinery in 2000.

The NRL's continual efforts to maximise production of high value distillates resulted in net distillate yield of 84.74 per cent wt, which is one of the highest in the country.

After establishing itself as a trustworthy brand in customer perception within a short span of its entry in the retail segment with its high-end retail outlets and customer centric services, the company moved ahead with retail expansion plans across the entire country with special focus in the North East.

The tally of its commissioned energy stations had reached 74 so far, out of which 42 are located in the NE. The NRL's retail outlet at Jorabat, commissioned in January 2006, emerged as the highest selling outlet in the whole of Eastern Region. During 2006-07, the average MS and HSD sales from this retail outlet was 2083 KL per month.

''NRL continues to take utmost care in maintaining highest standard in respect of product quality and quantity and so far, seven retail outlets have already been certified by the Det Norske Veritas (DNV) under quality and quantity protocol. The certification process is in progress for several other outlets,'' the chairman said.

The NRL had also identified a number of value added projects for improving its profit margin so as to achieve consolidation and growth.

A Motor Spirit (MS) project taken up during the 10th Five Year Plan was successfully completed in 2006-07 within the approved project cost of Rs 296.86 crores. The Plant has been producing MS conforming to BS-II and Euro-III grade since July 2006 and March 2007 respectively in line with the requirements of the government's 'Auto Fuel Policy'.

Other important projects, presently under various stages of implementation, were Marketing Terminal Project at Siliguri, 12 Mega Watt Steam Turbine Generator (STG) Project and Diesel Quality Upgradation Project.

UNI