NEW DELHI, May 31 � Oil India Limited (OIL) continues to suffer the aftershocks of the shutdown of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL), as its bottom line improved marginally to touch Rs 2883.73 crore, marking a 10.62 per cent increase.
Had it not been for NRL shutdown, production would have touched 6.5 million tonne and profits would have been higher by Rs 600 crore, said OIL officials.
Addressing a press conference to announce the company�s latest financial results, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, CMD N M Borah said subsidy revision and NRL shutdown hit its bottom line. The oil company had to bear the subsidy burden of Rs 1256.54 crore compared to Rs 584.46 crore last fiscal. OIL has recommended highest-ever dividend of 375 per cent.
�Despite having the production loss, we have been in a position to have marginal gain, registering half a per cent growth over the last fiscal,� said the CMD.
The NRL was shut down beyond the scheduled period for major up gradation works to comply with Euro III and Euro IV norms. Had the loss due to NRL shut down not been there, OIL would have crossed yearly production target of 3.70 MMT, he said.
The crude oil production rate has been increasing continuously since then and OIL is currently producing crude oil at the rate of 3.90 MTPA, which is noteworthy, as most of its production is coming from aging fields in the North-East, said Borah.
Attributing the increase in production of crude oil from old oil fields to use of world class technology, Borah disclosed that during the current fiscal six new oil and gas discoveries were added.
Another area of concern for OIL has been lower off-take of gas by customers.
OIL�s gas production at the current level is 7 million cubic meters per day.
�Once we take new customers we will be able to ensure production of 9-10 million cubic meters per day,� he said.
Borah said that production of natural gas is expected to increase as off-take by customers increase. With the commissioning of the Duliajan-Numaligarh gas pipeline in March, OIL has started supply of gas to NRL, who are withdrawing around 0.80MMSCMD currently. OIL would ultimately take 1 MMSCMD of gas for its captive use.
�OIL has also committed supply of 1.35 MMSCMD of gas to Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymers Limited, the Assam Gas Cracker Project, once the cracker comes on stream.
The CMD said that many of its existing customers have not been able to lift the allotted quantity of gas, not ruling out the possibility of having to flare up the surplus gas, if the situation remained unchanged.
