India's second largest private refiner, Essar Oil, a subsidiary of UK-listed Essar Energy has posted highlights for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2012.

Essar Oil reported that the current price gross refining margin was $9.75 per barrel for the October-December quarter, representing a 350% rise compared to $2.82 per barrel from the corresponding period in 2012. The company reported that this reflected the higher complexity benefits post-completion of expansion and optimization projects.

Gross revenues for the third quarter stood at Rs 25,909 crore, up 86% over Rs 13,897 crore reported in the corresponding period in 2012. One crore equates to ten million.

Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation (EBITDA) was up 8.4 times at Rs 1,242 crore compared to Rs 148 crore in the third quarter of 2012.
Profit after tax for the quarter was at Rs 32 crore versus a loss of Rs 362 crore in the same period last year.

Suresh Jain, Chief financial Officer of Essar Oil, commented: "With current price gross refining margin continuing to remain firm, the company has witnessed [a] major jump in its overall earnings performance in the third quarter.

"Our EBITDA and PAT would have been higher by Rs 260 crores in this quarter if not for the foreign exchange gain accounted in the previous quarter."

Essar Energy's share price was up 0.67% to 119.70p at 11:35 on Tuesday morning.

MF

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