CHENNAI: Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd registered a 27% reduction in its profit after tax in the January-March quarter of FY 2015-16. It posted a profit of Rs 265.59 crore in the quarter in comparison with Rs 364.57 crore it made in the corresponding period of FY 2014-15.
The revenue dropped to Rs 5869.65 crore from Rs 8,823.95 crore because of a reduction in the gross reduction margin from Rs 5.82 per barrel to Rs 5.07. Also, the company’s annual throughput was lower YoY at 9.644 million tonne from 10.782 million tonne due to scheduled plant shutdowns and floods in Chennai. “The throughput is expected to improve this year,” said Ashok B, chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL). CPCL is a group company of IOCL.
The company is planning to invest Rs 4,700 crore in the next three years on three projects – a resid upgrading project to improve the production of value-added products, a new 42-inch crude oil pipeline with enhanced safety features from Chennai Port to Manali Refinery, as a replacement for the existing pipeline, and a BS-IV quality upgrading project to supply improved quality of diesel and petrol by March 2017. “With a capex of Rs 1,317 crore planned for this fiscal, Rs 257.87 crore would be spent on the pipeline project,” added Ashok. The stock of the company fell by 0.68% to Rs 203 on BSE on Monday.
