Indian Oil Corporation Q1 net profit doubles on bumper retail fuel margin

New Delhi: State-owned Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) on Thursday reported more than doubling of its first quarter net profit, as marketing margins surged because of holding of retail prices despite a drop in input oil cost.

Its standalone net profit of Rs 5,688.60 crore in April-June - the first quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year - compared to Rs 2,643.18 crore earnings in the same period of the last year, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.

The first quarter profit is nearly half of the company's full 2024-25 (April 2024 to March 2025) fiscal year earnings of Rs 12,961.57 crore.

The profit surge was despite inventory losses arising from selling products at rates lower than the price at which input crude oil was bought at, lower refining margins and unpaid LPG subsidy.

The earning boost came from holding retail petrol and diesel prices despite a fall in their benchmark international rates. This led to a margin boost.

IOC's pre-tax profit from the downstream petroleum product sale surged to Rs 9,137.96 crore in April-June, from Rs 4,299.96 crore last year.

It earned USD 2.15 on every barrel of crude oil it processed and turned into fuels like petrol and diesel in Q1, compared to USD 6.39 per barrel gross refining margin last year. Core GRM after offsetting inventory loss came to USD 6.91 per barrel.

IOC turnover marginally rose to Rs 1.18 lakh crore in April-June when compared to Rs 2.15 lakh crore in April-June 2024.

The company processed 18.683 million tonnes of crude oil in Q1 against 18.168 million tonnes of refinery throughput in the same period last year. It sold 24.973 million tonnes of petroleum products in April-June, up from 24.063 million tonnes in Q1 of the last financial year.