Indian Oil Corp Ltd, the country’s top refiner, on Wednesday reported its first quarterly loss in more than four years in the March quarter, after a surge in inventory losses following a sharp fall in crude oil prices.
Chairman Sanjiv Singh said the fall in global prices impacted the group’s financial performance for the January-March quarter as the company holds about 45 days inventory.
Inventory losses are booked when oil prices fall by the time a company processes oil into fuel. Brent crude oil prices fell 65.6% during the March quarter.
Head of finance Sandeep Kumar Gupta said in January-March, Indian Oil registered inventory losses of 146.92 billion rupees, against a gain of 26.55 billion rupees a year earlier.
