GUWAHATI: The 27th Annual General Meeting of Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) was held on August 10, 2020. Keeping in view the current pandemic of COVID-19 the meeting was held through a web conference.
The meeting was presided over by D. Rajkumar, Chairman and Managing Director-Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and Chairman-NRL, S K Barua, Managing Director NRL, and other members of the NRL Board and shareholders of the company.
The annual dividend paid by the company remained at 150% i.e Rs 15/ per share which was already disbursed as Interim dividend in February 2020.
Commenting on the present circumstances, Chairman D Rajkumar said, "The last few months have been tough with most of our efforts focussed on adapting to the changing circumstances that have unfolded in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the positive side, the crisis has thrust upon us opportunities to break free from the conventional ways in which we have been carrying out our business and also to explore other possibilities to stay current and relevant."
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NRL has recorded the highest ever CSR spending of Rs. 62.60 Crore during the financial year 2019-20.
Additionally, Rs. 25 Crore has been donated to the PM CARES fund for COVID-19. The Company has also met its target spending of 60% for School Education, Health, and Nutrition as per DPE guidelines.
NRL’s profitability in the year 2019-20 was adversely affected due to inventory losses in the month of March 2020, as Crude Oil prices reached a new low impacted by the pandemic situation. Revenue from operations recorded a dip at Rs. 14,073 Crore during the year 2019-20 as compared to Rs. 18,511 Crore in the previous year due to lower sales volume and reduction in prices of petroleum products in the international market.
NRL’s contribution to the Central and State exchequers in the form of taxes, duties, and dividends during the year 2019-20 has been Rs. 3,361 Crore.
The refinery processed 2,383 TMT of Crude Oil compared to 2,900 TMT in the year 2018-19, the decline is mainly attributable to Refinery Turn Around undertaken after a gap of 4 years and lower capacity utilization during March 2020 in the aftermath of COVID-19. However, improved results were recorded in terms of Specific Energy Consumption and Energy Intensity Index, a clear manifestation of continual energy-saving efforts.
During the year 2019-20, the refinery also processed maiden imported Miri Light Crude Oil from Malaysia. In terms of production efficiency, NRL continues to be in the league of best-performing refineries in the country with one of the highest Distillate Yield, lowest specific Energy Consumption, and high Gross Refining Margin (GRM).
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Overall sales volume during 2019-20 was 2,361 TMT against the production of 2,300 TMT. The highlight of the year was the launch of NRL’s own brand of Food Grade Wax ‘Pristene’ which recorded a sale of 0.5 TMT during the year.
During 2019-20, NRL was honoured with several awards in recognition of its accomplishments in various spheres of activities. They include FAME Environment Excellence Platinum Award 2018-19; Refinery of the Year Award at Downstream India Excellence Awards 2019; CII National Award 2019 for excellence in Water Management; PRSI National Award 2019 for best House Journal- English; Chal Vaijayanti Shield 2019 (3rd Prize) for effective implementation of the Official Language Policy of Govt. of India by Town Official Language Implementation Committee (TOLIC) of PSUs; Best Hindi magazine (1st Prize) for PRAYAS by Town Official Language Implementation Committee (TOLIC) of PSUs; Governance Now PSU Leadership Award 2019 for MD NRL and Governance Now Award 2019 for Environment and Sustainability, Investment in Start-ups. The Company’s focus is primarily on three major ongoing projects namely the Refining Capacity Expansion Project, Indo-Bangladesh Friendship pipeline(IBFPL), and Bio-Refinery Project; which have gained momentum and recorded definitive progress.
NRL has recently been accorded the Environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change for the Refinery Expansion Project on 27th July 2020, which would be the zero date for the Project. M/s SBI Capital Markets Limited, Mumbai has been appointed for Debt syndication of Rs. 15,102 Crore for Refinery Expansion Project.
The 130 KM Indo-Bangla Friendship Pipeline (IBFPL) for exporting NRL products from the Siliguri Marketing Terminal to Bangladesh is progressing well.
Also, the country’s first 2G bamboo-based biorefinery being executed through a JV with Finnish collaborators has recorded adequate progress on the ground.
Commenting on the aforesaid developments MD NRL S K Barua said, “Stringent monitoring of the aforesaid projects taking into consideration lockdowns, travel restrictions, logistic disruptions and migrant worker availability will be critical to ensure their scheduled completion and commissioning.”