Latest news with #Bharat Petroleum Corp
Reuters
5 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
Indian state refiners eye Russian oil as discounts widen, sources say
NEW DELHI, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Indian state refiners have started making enquiries with trading firms about purchases of Russia's Urals crude oil as discounts widen, three people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday, ahead of a high-profile meeting of U.S. and Russian leaders on Friday. Indian state refiners - Indian Oil Corp ( opens new tab, Hindustan Petroleum Corp ( opens new tab, Bharat Petroleum Corp ( opens new tab and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd ( opens new tab - paused Russian oil purchases last month as discounts narrowed. The state refiners, which account for more than 60% of India's 5.2 million barrels per day of refining capacity, buy Russian oil on a delivered basis. Spot discounts for Russian Urals crude delivered to India in October have widened to about $2.70 per barrel from $1-$1.50 per barrel in late July, the sources said. The wider discount makes delivery of Urals cheaper than it was in July. India became the largest customer of Russian seaborne oil from 2022, after Western countries shunned Russian oil and imposed sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine. U.S. President Donald Trump last month threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees to a peace deal with Ukraine. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss a possible deal to end the war in Ukraine when they meet on Friday in Alaska. "We will wait for the outcome of Trump-Putin talks that will give us some indications," one of the sources said. State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp ( opens new tab aims to continue using Russian oil to meet up to 35% of its processing needs if there are no new sanctions, Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta, its finance head, told an analyst call on Thursday. BPCL's Russian oil purchases slowed in July as discounts narrowed, he added. Indian state refiners have turned to spot purchases from countries including Brazil, West Africa, and the United States to replace lower Russian oil supplies. Russian Urals crude is priced at a discount to Brent crude oil, a widely used oil pricing benchmark. Russian oil accounts for more than a third of India's overall purchases. Unlike state refiners, private companies, including Reliance Industries ( opens new tab and Nayara Energy, have term contracts to buy Russian oil.
Reuters
6 days ago
- Business
- Reuters
India's BPCL beats quarterly profit view on lower costs, improved demand
Aug 13 (Reuters) - India's state-run refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) ( opens new tab reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by a dip in costs and improved fuel demand. Standalone net profit doubled to 61.24 billion rupees ($700.4 million) for the quarter ended June 30. Analysts, on average, were expecting a profit of 57.18 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG. Revenue from operations rose 1.2% to 1.30 trillion rupees. Its expenses fell about 2% to 1.22 trillion rupees, with an 8.8% decline in the cost of materials consumed. For further earnings highlights KEY CONTEXT India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, witnessed an uptick in fuel demand for two of the three months between April and June, with gasoline and aviation fuel leading the way. Global Brent crude oil prices dropped 9.5% in the April-June quarter on higher supply and tariff-related uncertainty. BPCL, India's third-largest oil refiner by capacity, said its average gross refining margin fell to $4.88 per barrel for the quarter ended June 30 from $7.86 per barrel a year ago. Peer Hindustan Petroleum Corp ( opens new tab posted a jump in quarterly profit, earlier this month, on lower expenses. PEER COMPARISON * The mean of analyst ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell ** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT APRIL-JUNE STOCK PERFORMANCE -- All data from LSEG -- $1 = 87.4380 Indian rupees
