The Fortune 500 company earned a turnover of Rs 34,052 crore between April and September this year, which was a 21 per cent increase over its sales in the first six months of 1997-98. In the whole of last year Indianoil had earned a profit of Rs 1,706 crore out of a turnover of Rs 59,264 crore.

An Indian oil release says the phased dismantling of the administered pricing mechanism had allowed the company to ``reach new heights in marketing and operations.'' The freeing of oil prices began in September last year, when the subsidy on diesel was rolled back.

Beginning April this year, a partial import parity was allowed in the pricing of crude oil and price controls were lifted from industrial fuels, like naphtha, low sulphur heavy stock (LSHS), light diesel oil (LDO) and furnace oil.

The financialcomfort will enable Indianoil to invest Rs 9,500 crore during the Ninth Five Year Plan period, to build new projects and in upgrading old ones. It is commissioning a six-million-tonne capacity refinery at Panipat and is expanding the capacity of its Gujarat refinery by three million tonne.

Indianoil's Haldia-Barauni crude pipeline will be commissioned in December 1998, six months ahead of schedule. The company is also building a fluidised catalytic converter unit (FCCU) at the Haldia refinery and expanding its Barauni refinery to a capacity of six million tonne.

Also on the anvil is a nine-million-tonne-capacity grassroots refinery at Paradip and another refinery with the same capacity in Nagapattinam, Tamil Nadu, as a joint venture with Madras Refineries Limited (MRL).

Our Research Bureau adds: At a time when other refineries have recorded either negative or stagnant growth, IOC has managed a 53 per cent growth in bottomline. Inspite of the fact that most of the products are decontrolled thecompany has manged to improve its operating margin from 5.10 per cent in first half of 1997-98 to 6.78 per cent in the current fiscal. In fact the second quarter margins were as high as 7.06 per cent.

The main reason for the improvement in the company's performance is increase income from marketing division. Margins from marketing are higher than that from refining. Further, the company has also been helped by income from oil bonds.