Essar Oil sees profit jump 63pc
Essar Oil, India’s second-largest private refiner, saw a 63 per cent jump in profit after tax in the quarter ended 31 December to 520m rupees (£50.9m).
Despite a planned seven-day shutdown at the Vadinar refinery, operational efficiencies and more stability both in terms of oil prices and foreign exchange rates helped the firm turn a profit.
Chief executive L.K. Gupta highlighted progress but alluded to ongoing challenges:
We had an excellent quarter during which we demonstrated further improvement in all our operational areas, from refinery to marketing to finance.
In spite of benchmark margins continuing to languish due to lower gasoline and fuel oil cracks, Essar Oil has delivered very good margins.
Our premium over the benchmark IEA margins at $9.33 per oil barrel is at an all-time high, demonstrating benefits of higher complexity.
Share are currently down just over two per cent:
