NRL posts highest-ever profit, capital investments despite Covid-19 challenges

Focus on the internal strength, adaptability and the robust inbuilt systems helped Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), the public sector oil company based in Assam to register the highest-ever profit, dividend and capital investment during 2020-2021, despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company recorded a profit of Rs. 3,036 crores and paid dividend of 375% during the financial year, which were highest since its inception in 1985.

This was made public during the 28th annual general meeting of the NRL held in Guwahati on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by Chairman NRL and CMD Oil India Limited ( OIL), S C Mishra and was attended by MD NRL, S K Barua and other members of the NRL Board and shareholders of the Company.

"The highlight of the Financial Year 2020-21 was the change in ownership of the company with OIL taking over as holding company with majority equity shareholding through a Share Purchase Agreement signed on March 25, 2021. The year ended on a positive note despite innumerable adversities, leveraging on internal strength, adaptability and robust inbuilt systems and procedures," said a statement issued by Madhuchanda Adhikari Choudhury, the deputy general manager (corporate communications), NRL.

The company posted revenue from operations at Rs.18,544 crore which was higher by 31.77% over Rs.14,073 crore in the previous year, primarily on account of higher sales volume.

"Higher crude throughput and increase in overall margins resulted in NRL posting record net profit of Rs. 3,036 crore, an increase of 120% over the previous year. The net worth of the company has also increased to Rs.5,596 crore as of March 31, 2021, as compared to Rs. 5,304 crore in the previous year. The outstanding financial performance has also led to the highest ever contribution to the government exchequer at Rs.6,468 crores," said the statement.

Physical/Marketing performance:

During the FY 2020-21, the refinery processed 2,707 TMT of crude oil, a 14% increase over the previous year. The company also imported 42 TMT crude oil which was processed in the refinery. There was an increase in production of HSD by more than 12% at 1,809 TMT and MS by 36% at 636 TMT over the previous year. The refinery also recorded the highest-ever wax production of 47 TMT, a 17% increase over the previous year and the highest-ever LPG bottling at 57 TMT, an increase of 33% over the previous year.

Capital investment and projects:

The company aggressively pursued major ongoing projects, such as Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project, 2G Ethanol Project and India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL).

The Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project (NREP) envisages enhancing capacity of the existing refinery from 3.0 MMTPA to 9.0 MMTPA, constructing a Crude Oil Import Terminal at Paradip port in Odisha and laying of a 1,635 KM long cross country Crude Oil Pipeline from Paradip Port to Numaligarh at a total estimated cost of Rs.28,000 Crore.

With this and several other ongoing projects undertaken during the Financial Year 2020-21, NRL recorded the highest ever capital investment Rs. 924 crores, it said.

Digital initiatives:

During the Financial Year 2020-21, the NRL launched digital initiatives such as the Paperless Office Solution, AAROHAN in August 2020 which resulted in the total digital transformation of the procurement cycle to be eventually implemented for all business processes of the organization including HR, benefit management and other internal and external processes which are carried out through SAP, the statement said. "Another important development was the commencement of S/4 HANA (High-Performance Analytical Appliance) migration project from December 2020 that would improve performance due to its ability to process data faster with embedded analytical capability. Cloud hosted Digital Capital Project Management Tools, Immersive VR Training for safety and marketing operations were some of the other initiatives during the year," said the statement.

The NRL also joined the fight against Covid-19 and earmarked Rs. 36 crores. It set up a 120 bedded COVID care centre with ICU facilities, Oxygen plants, free vaccination and others.

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