Indian Oil Corporation: Fuelling Growth
The financial year 2017-18 has been a milestone year for Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) across divisions and verticals. The largest commercial oil company in the country has not only surpassed previous records and posted a remarkable performance, both in physical and fiscal terms, but has also emerged the most profitable central public sector enterprise the second consecutive year. Truly then, for IndianOil, being the ‘Energy of India’ is much more than just notching up a high turnover and record profits. It is about taking the lead to meet India’s energy demands efficiently and effectively today, just as it has done over the last five decades, and to be an enterprise that fuels India’s core sector for economic development.
“Brand Indian Oil, assiduously built over six decades, essentially embodies the trust of millions of stakeholders. It may be worth millions in terms of brand value but, to every IOCian, it is a priceless legacy to be treasured, preserved and passed on to future generations,” Sanjiv Singh, Chairman of IndianOil, said in the company’s recent annual general meeting. “Your company is celebrating the current year as the “Year of Trust”. Financial year 2017-18 has been a stupendous year in which your company not only exceeded its past performance but created new benchmarks across business verticals,” Singh told the shareholders.
IOC’s existing nine refineries, spread across the country, achieved the highest ever crude oil throughput of 69.0 million metric tonnes (MMT) during the year 2017-18 as against 65.2 MMT in the previous year. Including CPCL refineries, it has achieved a crude oil throughput of 79.8 MMT against 75.5 MMT in the previous year. Driven by the growing demand for POL products, IndianOil has ambitious plans to almost double its current installed group refining capacity of 80.7 MMTPA to about 150 MMTPA by 2030. This also includes the proposed Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals (RRPCL), apart from numerous brownfield expansions.
“Your company incurred a capital expenditure of over Rs 20,000 crore during last fiscal and upon completion, IndianOil’s pipeline network would expand to about 20,000 km in length. Your Company has contributed Rs 1,90,670 crore to the Government exchequer during 2017-18. ....we are focusing on all emerging opportunities for organic and inorganic growth through vertical integration and strategic diversification, besides pursuing value-creating research areas. As part of this, projects costing approx. Rs 32,000 crore are in various stages of execution and plans are underway for implementing more projects costing about `1.43 lakh crore in the next five years,” Singh added in the AGM on the company’s expansion plans.
IOC’s LPG sales crossed 10 million tonnes during the fiscal. The company released more than 1 crore LPG connections for the third consecutive financial year. IOC’s automated fuel stations have now crossed the 13,000-mark and achieved 3.5 per cent higher combined throughput compared to the previous year. In R&D, the year was marked by deployment of major in-house technologies at the company’s refineries as well as commercialisation of many lubricant formulations. An Octamax unit was commissioned at Mathura Refinery to produce high-octane fuel for BS-VI gasoline pool with technology conceptualised by the IOC R&D. Over 80 patents were filed during the year and approval was received for 54, taking the total number of active patents beyond 600.
“Today, as we stand poised for an exciting future, 1 am happy to say that your company, with its bright, talented and hard working people, is fully prepared to transform into Indian Oil 2.0 and stay viable, sustainable and profitable in the decades to come,” Singh highlighted in the AGM report.
