GUWAHATI, May 21 ? Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) has netted a profit of Rs 174.63 crore during the year 2002-03 registering an increase of 42 per cent compared to last year?s profit. The Board of Directors of the NRL has recommended payment of 30 per cent of the net profit as dividend for the year 2002-03 to shareholders of the company including Assam Government, BPCL, OIL and Oil Industries Development Board (OIDB). The sale of the company during the year 2002-03 rose by 24 per cent to Rs 2805 crore from the previous year?s sale of Rs 2261 crore, lower crude throughput due to lower N-E crude availability notwithstanding.
During the year 2002-03 the refinery produced around 1678 TMT of products including 1154 TMT of high-speed diesel (HSD). All the products of the refinery were sold with the help of BPCL network in the market spreading upto the eastern Uttar Pradesh. As the Government of India has made arrangement for supplying additional 1.5 million MT of Ravva crude to BRPL to augment the supply of crude to the four State refineries in the year 2003-04, the NRL is expected to be fed with 2.8 million MT of crude oil for the year 2003-04 which is almost a million tonne higher than last year?s availability.
If the NRL receives the entire quantity of crude as allocated by the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC), its products volume will be increased around 50 per cent over the last year?s level. Thus products evacuation will be major challenge for NRL particularly for the reality that more than 75 per cent of its produce have to be taken out by rail to distant destination outside North east. BPCL, the major stake holder in the NRL, however, assured that entire quantity of products of the NRL at the crude throughput of 2.8 million MT would be evacuated and accordingly an evacuation plan has been finalised in association with the NRL. In regard to setting up of proposed retail network, it was informed that NRL had already completed major portion of the market survey covering all the States of North East, Eastern Region, parts of Northern and Southern region to identify locations of retail outlets.