Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd today reported a net profit of Rs 5,104.04 crore in the fourth quarter of 2008-09 on the back of good refining margin and the government issuing large oil bonds to cover for fuel losses. Net profit in the January-March quarter of 2008-09 fiscal was Rs 5,104.04 crore compared to Rs 381.51 crore a year earlier, HPCL chairman and managing director Arun Balakrishnan said after company board meeting.

The company got Rs 2,034 crore worth of oil bonds in Q4 and another Rs 559 crore from upstream firms like ONGC to cover for revenue loss on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government dictated price rather than at cost. “The government fully compensated us for the losses on fuel sales. In fact, we got about Rs 700 crore of more bonds (than the revenue loss in Q4),” HPCL director (finance) B Mukherjee said.

The company earned $9.52 on processing every barrel of crude oil in Q4 against $7.40 per barrel a year ago. Net sales, however, fell to Rs 25,154.21 crore from Rs 31,470.61 crore. For the full year, HPCL reported a net profit of Rs 574.98 crore against Rs 1,134.88 crore in 2007-08.