BENGALURU (Reuters) – Indian state-owned oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd on Friday mentioned it posted its greatest quarterly revenue in 9 years, helped by a fall in crude costs and better refinery margins.

Net revenue for the fourth quarter ended March 31 jumped about 80% to 32.23 billion rupees ($394.1 million) from 17.95 billion rupees a yr earlier, in response to a inventory alternate submitting.

Sale of merchandise grew practically 8.6% to 1.14 trillion rupees, with home gross sales rising to 10.92 million metric tonnes (MMT) from 10.26 MMT a yr earlier.

Indian refiners’ crude oil processing stayed close to all-time highs in March, catering to stable seasonal demand as gas consumption jumped to a report excessive, pushed by strong financial exercise on this planet’s third-largest oil shopper.

The Mumbai-based firm additionally mentioned that its common gross refining margin – revenue from making refined merchandise from one barrel of oil – was $14.01 per barrel for the quarter, in comparison with $12.44 per barrel a yr in the past.

In March, oil costs slumped to their lowest in additional than a yr, a optimistic for refining firms that import crude oil as their uncooked materials.

Brent crude costs have fallen practically 49% from a peak final yr, serving to raise oil firms’ advertising and marketing margins.

Hindustan Petroleum in its assertion mentioned that vitality transition initiatives will likely be consolidated below a brand new firm, including that it’s going to additionally discover carving out its lubricants enterprise.

The firm is the primary amongst its state-run friends, together with refiner Indian Oil Corp and oil advertising and marketing firm Bharat Petroleum Corp, to report quarterly outcomes.

Shares of Hindustan Petroleum closed 0.91% up forward of outcomes on Friday.

($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)