Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (NR)
 
Mangalore, Jan 17: Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd - MRPL's third quarter net profit has almost tripled on higher turnover. MRPL, a subsidiary of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd (ONGC),  announced here on Wednesday January 16 a robust rise of 2.93 times in earnings to Rs 3,466 million for the quarter ended December 31, 2007, compared with Rs 1,184.60 million in the corresponding quarter, last year.
 
Turnover is up 11% at 93.24 billion rupees as compared with 84.03 billion last year.  Earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter jumped 2.68 times to Rs 1.82 compared with Rs 0.68 in the same period, previous year. Net sales for the quarter rose 11.28% to Rs 81,382.80 million, while the total income for the quarter climbed 10.43% to Rs 81,690.90 million, when compared with the corresponding quarter, a year ago.

MRPL is a leading operator of refinery in the city with high flexibility to process crude of various API and with high degree of automation. It has a design capacity to process 9.69 million metric tons per annum and is the only refinery in India to have 2 hydro-crackers producing premium diesel. It is also the only refinery in India to have 2 CCRs producing unleaded petrol of high octane.

The company also said that its throughput during the quarter was 10 pct lower at 3.02 million metric tonnes due to maintenance work at some secondary processing units in Nov-Dec 2007, which was completed ahead of schedule. Further it informed that it has launched its first retail outlet HiQ at Madur on January 12. Two more outlets in Hubli and Mangalore would be commissioned by March 2008. The work on the remaining retail outlets in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu is at an advanced stage.