Careful Monitoring and Refinery Operations Put MRPL’s Q2 Results in Limelight

In the audit committee meeting held on Thursday, Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) disclosed its unaudited financial results for the second quarter and first half of 2020-21. The company registered a net profit of INR 35.84 crore in the second quarter of FY21, as against a loss of INR 574.45 crore in the corresponding period of FY20. The company had recorded a net loss of ?519.86 crore in Q1FY21.

In the notes stated in its standalone financial results, the company mentioned that oil demand went to its historic lows due to low offtake for petroleum products due to Covid pandemic and its impact over the Indian economy. However, the capacity utilization showed gradual improvement in the second quarter as compared to the previous quarter.

The management is carefully assessing the potential impact of the pandemic and expects no significant impact on the continuity of its operations with positive business growth expected in longer-terms. As per our industry sources, MRPL will continue operating its refinery at around 60-70% of capacity as the demand is still a while away from reaching its pre-pandemic levels.

Moreover, poor middle distillate margins have forced the company to revisit its decision of ramping up run rates. The refiner has postponed its plans of increasing run rates to around 75%-80% to later in the fourth-quarter instead of the previously set month of October, and will maintain a wait-and-see stance for the demand uptick in oil products.

MRPL is involved in the production of almost 17 grades of crude oil and produces petrochemical products such as pet coke, liquefied petroleum gas, mixed xylene, vacuum gas oil (VGO), automatic transmission fluid (ATF) alongside others.