The oil marketing company had made an inventory gain of Rs 1,477 crore in the December 2017 quarter against a loss of Rs 3,465 crore in the December 2018 quarter. Crude oil prices crossed $85 per barrel in October this year but it saw a steep decline thereafter, resulting in losses for the company.

Owing to the same reason, peer Indian Oil too saw a 91% decline in net profit during the third quarter of FY19. HPCL’s chairman and managing director, MK Surana said: “The decrease in profit is mainly due to inventory losses caused by falling crude oil prices and higher fuel and loss component.” HPCL’s, a subsidiary of state-run explorer ONGC, revenues were up to Rs 76,884 crore compared with Rs 62,832 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal. The board of the company declared an interim dividend of Rs 6.50 per share.

The company’s gross refining margin (GRM) was $3.72 per barrel in the December 2018 quarter compared with $9.04 a year ago. GRMs across the the world have been weakening with Singapore benchmark at $4.5 per barrel in the Q3FY19 compared with $6.1/barrel in the preceding quarter. Fuel sales of the company rose to 9.4 million tonne, up 2.5% y-o-y. While petrol sales was up 6%, diesel was up a tepid 0.4%. While LPG sales remained flat, aviation turbine fuel sales was up 27.4%.