Essar Oil : Reports Strong Financials

FY15 Highlights

• Highest ever PAT at Rs 1,521 crore Vs Rs 126 crore in FY14
• Highest ever EBITDA at Rs 5,761 crore Vs Rs 4,781 crore in FY14
• Highest ever throughput at 20.49 MMT Vs 20.23 MMT in FY14
• Retail volume more than double; About 1,500 retail outlets operational, with another 1,400 under implementation
• Highest ever annual Current Price Gross Refining Margin (CP GRM) at $8.37 /bbl Vs $7.98/bbl in FY14
• Raniganj CBM production reached 0.62 million scmd; Essar is India's largest CBM gas producer

Mumbai : Essar Oil, India's second largest private refiner, today reported financial results for the quarter and financial year ending 31st March 2015.

Results for FY14-15
Gross revenues for the fiscal stood at Rs 92,983 crore, which was 13% lower than the Rs 1,07,190 crore reported in FY14. The dip in revenues is mainly due to lower crude oil price, which fell by about 50% during the year. Average crude oil price for FY15 was lower by over 20% as compared to FY14.

Essar Oil reported highest ever annual Current Price Gross Refining Margin (CP GRM) for the year ending Mar 31st, 2015 (FY15) at $8.37/bbl, as compared to $7.98/bbl in FY14, up 5%.

EBITDA during the year stood at Rs 5,761 crore, up 20% against Rs. 4,781 crore in FY14.

Profit after Tax (PAT) during the same period grew by 12 times at Rs. 1,521 crore, against Rs 126 crore in FY14.

During the year, Vadinar Refinery processed 20.49 MMT of crude, Vs 20.23 MMT in FY14, up 1.3%. This is the highest annual thoughput of Essar Oil. Vadinar Refinery continues to operate at over 100% capacity utilization.

Talking on the results, Mr. L.K. Gupta, Managing Director and CEO, Essar Oil, said: "We are happy to close the financial year with robust figures, both operationally and financially. Going forward, we expect further improvement in our product mix in favour of still higher proportion of light and middle distillates post completion of Gasoil Maximisation Project, which is expected by end of October 2015. On the retail front, we are witnessing encouraging response and improvement in sales."

Mr. Suresh Jain, CFO, Essar Oil, said, ""FY15 has been very successful year where our refinery has delivered stellar operating performance and our financing cost has declined significantly. This enabled us to declare highest ever GRM, EBIDTA and Profitability. We continue to look at opportunities to further reduce interest cost and strengthen our Balance Sheet."

Results for Q4FY15
Essar Oil's Current Price Gross Refining Margin (CP GRM) for the January-March 2015 quarter (Q4FY15) was highest ever at $10.41/bbl against $10.12/bbl reported in Q4FY14. Inspite of fall in crude oil prices, key product cracks have generally remaine d steady, resulting in robust refining margins.

EBITDA during the quarter stood at Rs 1,804 crore, against Rs 2,082 crore in Q4FY14. Profit after Tax (PAT) for the quarter was at Rs. 546 crore, against Rs 1,008 crore in Q3FY14.

During the quarter, Vadinar Refinery processed 5.12 MMT of crude, Vs 5.05 MMT during the same period last year, up 1.4%. Refinery processed 94% of Heavy and Ultra Heavy crude in its crude diet during Q4FY15, against 88% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Gross revenue for the quarter stood at Rs 19,252 crore, which was 30% lower than the Rs 27,691 crore reported in Q4FY14. The dip in revenues is mainly due to lower crude oil price, which fell by about 50% as compared to Q4FY14. As against October-December 2014 (Q3FY15) quarter, crude prices were down by about a third.

Operating and Financial Performance: Key Indicators

* EBIDTA includes forex variations

Marketing Operations
During the quarter, Essar Oil realized 57% of its revenues from the domestic market. Exports were higher at 43% (Vs 34% in Q4FY14) due to sluggish domestic demand and increased production from the newly commissioned PSU refineries.

Essar Oil has about 1500 operational retail outlets nationwide, with another 1,400 in various stages of implementation. With the government announcing deregulation of diesel prices on 19th Oct 2014, diesel retail sales from Essar Oil's outlets is gradually picking up. During the year, Essar Oil has more than doubled its retail volume from FY14. Essar Oil retail sales now account for 8% of its revenues (during Q4FY15) against 2% in the corresponding quarter last fiscal.

Exploration & Production
At our flagship Raniganj CBM Asset, we have achieved production of 0.62 million scm/d (standard cubic meters per day), making Essar Oil India's largest CBM gas producer. This is being sold to industrial consumers in the catchment area.

While 120 wells have been already placed on gas production, additional 142 wells have been drilled and presently are at various stages of the hydrofracking-completion-dewatering cycle for gas ramp up to 1.2 million scmd over the next few months and 2.5-3 million scmd finally. We have built a high quality infrastructure including gas conditioning and compression stations, in-field pipelines of 120 kms. and last mile pipeline connectivity network to end users of approx. 60 kms. Essar anticipates completing the development program ahead of the May 2016 deadline as per the Contract with the Government of India.

About Essar Oil
Essar Oil is a fully integrated oil & gas company of international scale with strong presence across the hydrocarbon value chain from exploration & production to refining and oil retail. Essar Oil owns India's second largest single site refinery having a capacity of 20 MMTPA and complexity of 11.8, which is amongst the highest globally. It has a portfolio of onshore and offshore oil & gas blocks with about 1.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent in reserves & resources. There are about 1,500 Essar-branded oil retail outlets in various parts of India.

About Essar Global Fund Limited (Essar)
Essar Global Fund Limited is an investment fund managed by its investment manager, Essar Capital Limited. The Fund is a global investor, controlling a number of world-class assets diversified across the core sectors of Energy, Metals & Mining, Infrastructure (comprising ports and EPC businesses) and Services (primarily comprising shipping and BPO businesses). The aggregated revenues of the Fund's portfolio companies total US$35 billion. The Fund's portfolio companies employ over 60,000 people across 29 countries, and have adopted international standards of health, safety, environmental protection and corporate governance

Media Contacts:
Rabin Ghosh, Corporate Communications, (Mumbai)
Tel: 91 99 301 36268, email: rabin.ghosh@essar.com