MRPL surges on Colombian crude buy plan

NEW DELHI: Shares of MRPL jumped over 4 per cent in trade on Thursday following reports that the company is in talks with Colombia's Ecopetrol to buy term crude oil and is looking to purchase Iraq's Basra Heavy grade to diversify supplies and improve margins.

While the overall market sentiment was dampened by the weakening global outlook, the stock surged 4.52 per cent to hit its day’s high of Rs 54.30.

Thursday’s gains offered some respite to the stock, which has fallen 22 per cent in the past month, against a 13 per cent fall in the BSE oil & gas index during the same period.

The operating profit margins for the company stood at 6.89 per cent in the June quarter, compared with 0.47 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

H Kumar, managing director of MRPL, told Reuters that the state-run refiner is aiming to get its first cargo of Colombia's Castilla crude by November.

But the spokesperson declined to reveal the size of any term deal with state-owned Ecopetrol. Another company executive had earlier said MRPL could buy as much as 30,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Latin American oil.

MRPL meets about 80 percent of its oil needs through heavy crude and the remainder through light oil.

"We have a 20 per cent cushion within our heavy crude purchases, so we will procure that from new suppliers," Kumar said, adding that ample crude and several new grades are available in the market.