The year 2012-13 was quite significant for Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (HPCL) as it completed 39 years since its formation 
and entered the 40th year in July 2013. During the year, many historical milestones were achieved by the Corporation in the downstream of refining & marketing and the emerging business of natural gas.
Addressing the 61st annual general meeting of HPCL in Mumbai, Mr. Subir Roy Choudhury, its Chairman & Managing Director, said the company continued achieving superior performance in 2012-13 also, and its gross sales increased by about 15 per cent to reach Rs. 2,15,675 crores. Profit after tax was Rs. 905 crores, marginally lower than in the previous year mainly due to higher provision for tax. The company also improved the Fortune 500 ranking to 260 from 267 of the previous year.
He said the company’s refineries achieved a combined refining throughput of 15.78 MMT with a capacity utilization of 107 per cent. The Mumbai refinery achieved the highest-ever crude throughput of 7.75 MMT, surpassing the previous highest of 7.51 MMT achieved in 2011-12. The lube oil refinery in Mumbai achieved an annual production of 362 TMT of base oils comprising 320 TMT of Group I base oils and 42 TMT of Group II base oils. Gross refinery margins averaged at $2 per barrel as compared to $3 in the previous year.
In order to meet growing domestic demand, the company refineries achieved the highest-ever annual production of LPG, MS and bitumen at 818 TMT, 2619 TMT and 1042 TMT respectively. With the commissioning of the joint venture refinery at Bathinda, self-sufficiency in refining capacity increased to 80 per cent of sales.
The Chairman expressed happiness over the successful conclusion of the joint venture agreement with the Rajasthan Government for setting up a 9 MMTPA refining-cum-petrochemical complex in that State. The proposed refinery will be designed with the high complexity factor to process both the locally available Rajasthan crude and other crudes.
Further, HPCL’s R&D division has undertaken collaborative R&D projects in research areas related to nano catalysts, residue upgradation, improved lubricants, bio-fuels development and development of catalysts for refinery processes.
The Corporation continued to record robust physical sales growth during the year by implementing effective marketing strategies. It registered total products sale of 30.32 MMT as against 29.48 MMT recorded in 2011-12, representing a growth of 4.7 per cent over the sales volume of the previous year. This performance has enabled the Corporation to improve its market share amongst public sector oil companies to 20.19 per cent against 19.96 per cent in 2011-12.
In retail sales, HPCL increased the market share in combined petrol and diesel segments for the nineth consecutive year with an increase of 0.14 per cent during the year to reach 25.20 per cent.
Referring to direct sales, Mr. Choudhury said the company achieved a marketing sales volume of about four MMT and recorded positive growth of 0.4 per cent and market share gain of 0.2 per cent mainly due to the special focus on bitumen and consumer diesel product segments. In the competitive bitumen sales segment, it achieved a growth of 13 per cent and reached the milestone sales of one MMT. In the aviation business line, it achieved sales of 567 TMT during the year.
The company continues to be the second largest lube marketer in the country. The value-added lube sales, excluding base oil sales, increased by 11 per cent to reach 296 TMT during 2012-13, the Chairman added.