Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), India's biggest oil firm, on Wednesday reported a net profit of Rs 8,781.30 crore for the January-March quarter, helped by higher refining margins.

Detailing the numbers, Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman of the company said that there has been a 15 percent impact on demand due to the second wave of COVID. However, he clarified that the impact is not as much as it was last year.

“Last year there was a nationwide lockdown due to which the refinery runs had come to nearly 47-49 percent in the month of April. This year because different geographies have different type of lockdown the refinery runs in April were at about 96 percent and in the month of May it is 84 percent. So 15 percent is the demand destruction that we are seeing at this point of time,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

Vaidya said that gasoline and diesel cracks are between USD 4-5/barrel, adding that the Singapore GRM currently is at about USD 1.79/barrel.

He also said that the company was able to ramp up capacities in the petchem segment beyond 100 percent and the spreads too are doing well. “Combined with the spreads and the 100 percent capacity utilization, we have been able to register good petchem margins,” he said.

The company’s current debt stands at Rs 1.02 lakh crore. However, he said that the debt will remain at the same level despite planned capex of around Rs 26,000 crore.

Vaidya also said that the company is making investments in hydrogen and electric vehicles.

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(Edited by : Pranati Deva)