Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (PS)
Mangalore, Sep 16: "In the year 2011-12 the refining capacity of the company has increased to 15 MMTPA with the successful commission of crude distillation unit and vacuum distillation unit of phase III project in March 2012. However, the financial year 2011-12 had been challenging with unprecedented global economic slowdown," said Sudhir Vasudeva, chairman, MRPL, at a press conference held on Saturday, September 15 after the 24th annual general meeting of the company.
He added that even under crucial times the company has achieved the highest ever turnover of Rs 5,72,068 million and highest ever crude through-put of 12.82 MMTPA with the lowest energy consumption.
In the financial year 2011-12, the company has earned a net profit of Rs 9086 million against net profit of Rs 11,766 million during the previous year. He reasoned the decline caused from reduce in crude prices, rupee value and through-put levels. The boards of directors have recommended a dividend of 10 %, Rs 1 per equity share in view of the on-going project investment and the reduced profitability.
The company has achieved an overall progress of 96.5 % as of September 1, 2012 in phase III project and is in the process of progressive commissioning of Diesel Hydro Treater Unit (DHDT), Sulphur Recovery Unit (SRU), Captive Power Plant(CPP), Petro Fluidized Catalytic cracking unit, delayed coker unit and coker gas oil hydro treater unit, in the sequential order.
He also said that the company suffered a net loss of Rs 15,210 million in the April-June quarter of financial year 2012-13 as the refinery was shut down for more than 10 days due to water scarcity. However, he added that as the new dam at Thumbe will be completed by March 2013, there will not be any problem of water supply as it has a water storage capacity which would be available for 25 days. Also, a sewage treatment plan will meet the water needs in the future years. “Every day there is need of 6.5 MGD water,” he said. “There is plan to procure crude oil from Iraq and Kuwait in future,” he revealed.
In the recently held Global Investors Meet by the government of Karnataka, the company has signed an MOU worth Rs 80,000 million envisaging enhancement of their fining capacity of 21 million tonnes per annum by 2020 and adding newer product, PTA in its product range.
P P Upadhyaya, M D and Vishnu Agarwal, financial head, were present during the press conference.