India's Bharat Petroleum Posts Lower Q3 Profit On Stagnant Retail Prices

Indian oil marketing company (OMC) Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd reported a 31% fall in quarterly profit on Monday, hurt by losses due to stagnant pump prices.

The company's standalone net profit dropped to 19.60 billion rupees ($240.6 million) in the third quarter ended Dec. 31, from 28.28 billion rupees a year earlier.

The marketing under-recovery of oil marketing companies was hurt by retail prices that have remained static since April, 2022.

Stagnant retail prices, in tandem with high crude oil prices, hurts OMCs' margins as they would not be able to recover costs for importing and refining the raw material.

Bharat Petroleum's market sales rose to 12.81 million metric tonnes (MMT) in the quarter from 11.15 MMT a year ago, indicating the company's profit was hurt as it sold more fuel.

The refiner, however, saw its nine-month gross refining margins rise to $20.08 per barrel from $6.78 in the same period a year ago.

Bharat Petroleum's revenue grew 13.7% to 1.33 trillion rupees in the latest quarter. ($1 = 81.4790 Indian rupees)