Rank 1: Indian Oil Corp On Top
Delhi, BusinessWorld 24-Feb-2022
The country’s largest integrated and diversified energy company, Indian Oil Corporation’s (IOC) presence across the entire hydrocarbon value chain allows it to create sustainable business outcomes. Today, IOC boasts the largest market share of India’s petroleum product consumption. A ‘Maharatna’ company, it addresses the multiple energy needs of the nation with its integrated business model, leading from the front as a responsible energy major. That may well be the reason that IOC has topped the list of 'BW Real 500 Companies', our annual ranking of listed companies based on extensive number-crunching of the previous financial year. Last year, IOC was ranked second.
The address to the shareholders by Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman, IOC seems to capture this feeling of triumph: "The last financial year has been a perfect guide in demonstrating the importance of team-resolve in tiding over challenges. Your company not only surmounted the pandemic crisis, but it also rose to the occasion to thwart major threats and chart new paths of excellence."
Putting the country before business remains an intrinsic part of IOC’s DNA, said Vaidya pointing to the company’s philosophy of ‘Pehle Indian, Phir Oil’. So, when the pandemic struck, IOC teams rose to the occasion swiftly and selflessly, serving the customers and stakeholders, despite disruptions in the demand and supply dynamics. "Displaying extraordinary zeal, Team IOC kept the fuel supply lines going and delivered a record 33.11 lakh Indane LPG cylinders on a single day, on 30th April 2020, braving the pandemic and a stringent lockdown," he added.
Fiscal 2020-21 turned out to be historic for IOC as it posted its highest annual profit ever. It also posted a record consolidated net profit of Rs 21,762 crore for FY21 against a loss of Rs 1,876 crore the year before. However, total income fell to Rs 5.23 lakh crore during FY21, from Rs 5.78 lakh crore.
IOC’s management attributed the increase in profit to inventory gains, which came from fluctuations in global oil prices and rising sales of high-margin petrochemical products. For FY21, the company's refining throughput was 62.351 million tonne (mt) and the throughput of IOC's countrywide pipeline network was 76.019 mt. IOC also achieved the highest petrochemical sales of 2.5 mt in FY21, up 20 per cent. The petrochemicals segment reported a turnover of Rs 19,564 crore, 24 per cent higher than FY20. IOC sold 81 mt of petroleum products in FY21 witnessing an annual drop of 9.7 per cent mainly due to Covid-induced lockdown.
Over the years, IOC has been the largest contributor to the Government exchequer in the form of duties, taxes, and dividends. During the year, Rs 238,786 crore was paid to the exchequer as against Rs 1,82,067 crore paid in the previous year, an increase of 31 per cent over the previous year. An amount of Rs 1,53,827 crore was paid to the Central Exchequer and Rs 84,959 crore to the States Exchequer compared to Rs 96,104 crore and Rs 85,963 crore paid in the previous year, respectively.
Road Ahead : The refiner intends to enhance its crude refining capacity from 70.05 mt to 87.55 mt by 2024-25, to meet the growing demand for petroleum products. The continuous efforts to increase petrochemical production along with refining capacity is expected to drive profitability in the days ahead. IOC is executing pipeline projects worth Rs 25,300 crore, which is under various stages of implementation. Commissioning of these projects will add around 6,600 km to the existing pipeline network, leading to a total pipeline network of 21,000 km with a liquid pipeline capacity of approximately 137 mt per annum and a gas pipeline capacity of approximately 51.70 MMSCMD.
