IOC Q3 Results: Maharatna oil PSU's profit jumps four-fold to ₹12,126 crore on refining margin boost

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Thursday reported a more than four-fold surge in its third-quarter net profit, as gains in refining and marketing margins offset weakness in the petrochemicals segment.

Its standalone net profit of ₹12,125.86 crore in October-December - the third quarter of April 2025 to March 2026 fiscal year - compared with ₹2,873.53 crore earnings in the same period a year back, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.

Refining margins surged on low prices of crude oil, the raw material IOC uses to make fuels like petrol and diesel. Fuel sales also rose 5 per cent in the quarter.

Without giving quarterly numbers, IOC said it earned USD 8.41 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuels during April-December 2025 against a cross-refining margin of USD 3.69 per barrel.

The company, which sells domestic cooking gas at government-controlled rates, accounted for ₹2,414.34 crore in subsidy receipts.

The government had, in October last year, approved a one-time compensation to cover losses IOC and other state-owned fuel retailers suffered on selling LPG at below market price. For IOC, ₹14,486 crore of subsidy to be paid in 12 equal monthly instalments was approved, starting from November 2025.

In accordance with this, the firm said it has recognised ₹2,414.34 crore instalments for November 2025 and December 2025 as revenue from operations. It, however, did not say if the subsidy had actually been received.

Fuel sales rose to 26.015 million tonnes in Q3 from 24.78 million tonnes in the previous year.

Its revenue from operations rose to ₹2.31 lakh crore from ₹2.16 lakh crore in Q3 of the previous 2024-25 fiscal.

Pre-tax earnings from fuel sales jumped four times to ₹16,836.08 crore, while income from gas business also increased 34 per cent to ₹596.45 crore. Weakness in the petrochemical business, however, continued with a loss more than doubling to ₹361.51 crore.

For the first nine months of the current fiscal, its net profit surged to ₹25,424.91 crore from ₹5,696.72 crore in April-December 2024.

What drove IOC Q3 PAT?

"Improvement in net profit is mainly on account of higher refining and marketing margin," IOC said without giving details.

IOC and other state-owned fuel retailers Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) have not revised retail petrol and diesel prices in line with cost since May 2022, except for a pre-election rate cut of ₹2 per litre in March 2024, despite crude prices softening. A freeze on retail rates has meant bumper profits for the companies.

For the nine months ended December 31, 2025, revenue from operations rose to ₹6.53 lakh crore from ₹6.27 lakh crore a year back. Domestic fuel sales were up 4.3 per cent. Petrochemical sales volume rose 3 per cent to 2.411 million tonnes.