BPCL Q3 net profit more than doubles on inventory gains

New Delhi: Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) on Tuesday reported more than doubling of its net profit for the December quarter on the back of inventory gains resulting from rising

oil prices.

Net profit in October-December at Rs 2,777.6 crore was 120 per cent higher than Rs 1,260.6 crore net profit in the same period a year back.

"Third quarter (of 2020-21 fiscal) has been the strongest in terms of profit before tax and profit after tax in this fiscal year. We are back to pre-COVID levels of sales," BPCL Director (Finance) N Vijayagopal said on a media call.

The company booked Rs 771 crore inventory gains after the fuel it made from crude oil it bought at lower prices got sold at higher rates.

It also had a foreign exchange gain of Rs 76 crore.

BPCL, which owns four refineries in the country, earned $2.47 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the October-December quarter, down from $3.23 per barrel gross refining margin (GRM) in the same period a year back.

Sales were up 1.4 per cent to Rs 86,579.9 crore.