Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (NSE: HINDPETRO) Q1 2026 Earnings Call dated Aug. 08, 2025
Corporate Participants:
Unidentified Speaker
K. Vinod — Executive Director, Corporate Finance and Chief Financial Officer
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Pushp Joshi — Chairman and Managing Director
Pushp Joshi — Chairman and Managing Director
Analysts:
Unidentified Participant
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Yash Nandwani — Analyst
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
Sumeet Rohra — Analyst
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
Ramesh — Analyst
Achal Shah. — Analyst
Mayank Maheshwari — Analyst
Vikash Chant — Analyst
Saurabh Handa — Analyst
Presentation:
operator
SA. Foreign. Ladies and gentlemen, Good day and welcome to Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited results conference call hosted by Antec Stockbroking Limited. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in the listen only mode. And there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during this conference call, please signal an operator by pressing Star then zero on your touch tone phone. Please note that this conference has been recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Vartarajan Shivashankaran from Antique Stockbroking Limited. Thank you. And over to you sir.
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Thank you, Abril. A very good morning to everyone. It’s my pleasure as always to welcome all the participants and the management of HPCL. Represented by Mr. Vikas Kaushal, Chairman Managing Director. Mr. Gajmus Naran, Director Finance. Mr. S. Bharatan, Director Refineries. Mr. K. Vinod, Executive Director, Corporate Finance. The floor is yours sir, for your initial remark.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Good morning everybody. Thank you for joining joining the call. And thank you for your continued interest in hpcl. And thank you team for organizing this call. I’m Vikas Kaushal. I’m joined by my colleagues. Ranjit Chi, Director of Finance. Bhartanji Director, Refineries. Vinod Ed, Corporate Finance and our corporate finance team would like to share our opening comments and then open it up for questions. Over the last 1214 hours many of you have written about us. We saw some analysts report. I’ve been tracking some of those. Some have posed questions which you tried to address in the opening statement.
And if left unaddressed, please feel free to ask those questions. We had last met in early May when we talked about our year end results and the board meeting which was held then. Since then we have been living in very interesting times with dynamic situations on multiple front. Geopolitical, macro environment, economic supply challenges etc. All I would say is Team HPCL has worked very hard to build momentum and push our business forward. We are in a good spot and we are bullish about the future. I’ll give my commentary opening commentary in two parts. I’ll talk about the current performance, our view on the current performance and shaping up.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
How are we shaping up the future? On the first part, current performance, the results are all out. You’ve seen we turned in a strong quarter on the refining side. 6.66 million tonne of throughput. 15.6% higher than last year. 109% capacity utilization. A lot of it was driven by capacity expansion programs which we had led. As you are aware, Vizag, we had completed the Capacity expansion last year and it is now running at 15 million tonnes. Just for context, it was an 8.3 million ton refinery in 2022. It is 15 million tonnes now, almost double. I’ll talk of the remaining part of the expansion project in the second segment.
I talk on. In running our refineries we have been focusing a lot on expanding our crude baskets. We are trying new ways of going to the market. Those of you who track crude purchases etc. Can see what we are trying to do or guess what we are trying to do. But through this we have processed four new crudes during the year, a wider basket of crudes and we are currently and constantly working on upgrading our process and widening the participative interest from suppliers to supply to HPCL. And we have seen some good results on that.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
On the sales side, sales were above 13 million tonnes which represents a growth of 3.2%. This resulted in strong financial results. EBITDA at 8,124 crores. I think the numbers are all there with you but profit after tax of 4371. If you just compare Q1 last year to this year it’s an 1112 times last year. But even if you just compare running quarters it is 30% over last quarter. And if you are looking at three quarters, just the last three quarters which have been good run for HPCL, you will see we have been clocking way above 3000 crores plus every quarter and roughly about 1100 crores back per month on a run rate basis coming to the projects.
They are progressing well. This was a question many of you asked in your analyst commentaries overnight on Vizag project. The rough, the bottom up gradation project. We have the OISID and PESO approvals. I think we announced it last time. We are in middle of pre commissioning activities just as we speak. Earlier this week we fired diesel into the flares. It is a very complex project, probably the first of kind done in India. So it will take us a few weeks to commission. But I can formally tell you that we are in midst of pre commissioning activities.
We are targeting commissioning in next few weeks. It could be before the end of this quarter as we had promised in last analyst call or at best spilling a quarter or a few weeks into the next quarter depending on how soon we are able to take hydrocarbon in. So we are about to finish that project and we expect to capture the benefits of that in the second half of the year especially when it stabilizes. October, November onwards on Barmyar there is 88% completion on the overall program. We have reprioritized how we are focusing on it and we have enhanced our focus on the refinery section in the last few months.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Refinery section is 95% plus completed as I speak. 12 packages are fully commissioned there. 12 of 28 packages. Petchem section is 73% complete. We have started the process of taking safety approvals and peso approvals for the packages which we are commissioning. And we are gearing up for crude in as we had said in this year we will do it in two parts. First we will go in with the refinery section hopefully in the next few months as the activities complete. As I said earlier, it is about 95% complete. Many of our other projects are going on track.
Mangalore LPG storage cabin, it’s ready. We are just awaiting pollution control before we do feed in onto that one. So that’s a summary of how we see the current performance. Happy to take in questions later on but let me talk also about how are we preparing for the future and our aim as a management team is to take HPCL to the next orbit of performance. We are already performing at a good clip. We talked of the numbers but how do we go to the next level? There are four key planks we are working on and I am outlining those four planks because in subsequent analyst calls we will keep harping on these four planks.
That is a part of our thought process. First and foremost is improving operational efficiencies. This is something I will delve a bit deeper today. But the remaining three planks are planning for next wave of growth, working on our enablers, the people, the digital aspects of our business, digitizing more of our business and then fourth, also enhancing our external engagement so that what we are doing is visible to you all. Today I will just focus a bit more on operational efficiencies. But in the subsequent analyst calls we will stick to these four buckets and keep updating your progress and you can hold us accountable on the progress on these in terms of operational efficiencies.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I’m very happy to announce that as a management team we launched, you can call it as a cost takeout or it’s a wider an EBITDA enhancement program. It’s called Samridhi. It’s actually being done internally and we launched it in May. The target is it aims at taking out up to about 1000-1500 crores. The aspirational target of savings, an EBITDA uplift on our routine operational performance by March 31st. We are at 25% of locked in savings at this point of time and 16% of our target is actually accrued into quarter one. So when you see the strong quarter one results there is some operational efficiency benefits which is already starting to click in.
I can give you the specific numbers. Close to about 250 crores of operational efficiencies have been locked in through this program. We are building in the theme of continuous operational excellence in our business and there is a lot of cross functional team working on it and this is a shared goal which is it’s a KPI for all our senior leaders, EDs and directors and me all together. Second operational efficiency theme is around. We have launched a program called Abu Dhai which is very focused on increasing our throughput and sweating our retail assets more. We are focusing on 4,500 retail outlets and this started again two months ago and early days we’re getting low single digit KL improvement on an average in these pumps but more could be expected there.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
In line with this we’ve also upped our dealer engagements and we have launched Sarvottam and Uttam awards where we are engaging our dealers a lot more. Third area on operational efficiencies is around capital allocation. We have been I would say a bit more stringent on new capital allocation and roughly going at around 2/3 60 to 70% of the run rate of last year. In terms of new projects which we are looking at the idea was to work on debt, equity and deleverage ourselves a bit. The results of which you would have seen in the financial results.
A few points I wanted to cover on the other aspects also we are focusing a lot on sweating our assets. There is a better performance on fuel losses in our refineries. I talked about crude sourcing, I talked about throughput increase and refinery very briefly on two other initiatives on what we are doing for future Some of you have tracked us would have seen we have signed a deal with ADNOC for gas supply. This is our second deal which we have done in this year. This is for a 10 year contract landing at Chara Terminal starting from 2028.
We’ve also post that concluded sourcing of our cargoes for 2027. In addition if you have tracked we have signed a green hydrogen tender for five it’s been concluded for our Vizag refinery 5K TPA at a very attractive rate of 328 rupees per kilogram as far as we know is the lowest discovered rate in Indian market as of now. I briefly touched upon our digital Transformation. We believe there is a lot more efficiencies which are feasible through redoubling our efforts on this. We had a program called Parikal but we are now taking the fresh wave of initiatives.
It’s a program sponsored personally by me and along with my leadership team. And we believe this will drive the next wave of operational efficiencies for us to conclude the opening remarks. We are on track to a strong year. But more importantly, we are preparing ourselves for a stronger future. I thank you all for your interest in participating in this dialogue and me along with my colleagues here. We look forward to your questions. Thank you.
operator
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer sessio (Operator Instructions)Ladies and gentlemen, we’ll wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Yashnandwani from IISL Capital. Please go ahead.
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Thanks for the opportunity. Sir, could you share the quantum of inventory losses in both the refining and the marketing segment?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
See the losses, inventory loss in refinery was around 1400 odd crores. And in marketing it was around 600. 100 crores. 600 crores.
Yash Nandwani — Analyst
Okay, sir. And secondly sir, on LPG compensation, there are reports that cabinet may approve it today. So what is your view on this and what would be the approximate compensation for HPCL in this regard?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
So your view? Yeah, we are eagerly waiting for the decision as you can imagine over the last few.
Yash Nandwani — Analyst
Can you just mute your line?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think there is echo from your side. Yeah. So we have been in discussions with the government over the last few months as you can imagine, giving them all the data which they need. The decision of course has to be taken by the government of India and we also read the same news as you do and we are also waiting for the same outcomes there. I wouldn’t want to comment on the quantum because I’m not privy to what is the there and what part has been accepted. What’s not been there. But all I would say is as a management team we are eagerly waiting for that decision and we hope and we believe it will be game changing for all the OMCs and also HBCL.
We’ll have to wait for the numbers. Yu.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I’ll just add on whatever may be the quantum. Our market share is around 27 to 28%. So that percentage would come to us. So if you see a number in the press, you can look at 27% as ours.
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Thanks sir. And lastly on Russian crude, so what was the share in Q1 and do. You see any impact in the near. Term and just your comments how the discounts are trending in present?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
See as I said earlier, we do a very rigorous exercise on how we buy crude and we’ve only gone deeper and wider in this exercise. As we said the Russian thing is just a few days old in terms of the sanctions. But as a team we were already looking at what is the best economic decision for us. In quarter one our share of Russian crude was only 13.2% in our overall portfolio which was lower than last year. And it’s not because of any geopolitical reason. It was economic decisions on what we needed to run in our refineries.
We did that in this quarter. The only place we ran Russian crude was in our east coast refinery in Vizag in Mumbai. We found other crudes to be more attractive. What would be the impact? Well it’s not that we are not buying Russian crude. Those decisions are still open. It’s just that whatever is economical will be bought. There is no guidance or direction on that aspect. Oh do this or don’t do that, that we are all free to do that. We are looking at alternatives as and when economic situations present. If we were not to buy Russian crude for any sanction related reasons, the impact is not too significant for us.
As you can do the back calculations from the numbers, it was only 13% of it. Do the 13% and do whatever little discounts you get on that crude. It’s not a very significant crude impact.
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Thanks a lot.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Yogesh Patel from Daulat Capital. Please go ahead.
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Thanks for an opportunity. Sir.
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Sir, sharp reduction in a Gross date Approximately 12,300 crore compared to the previous quarter. Sir, if you could give us some idea how much it was reduced due to the lower requirement of the working capital. That’s one thing. Going forward, do we have any target of net debt to EBITDA or total debt to equity which will be for the period of FY26 27? If you could some share details on this side.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think. Let me just give you an overarching comment and I’ll request my finance colleagues to give deeper into the target. Well the year end debt always is higher for us. So comparison on that is there. Not only for us, for others it’s always higher. But there are aspects of our business which we have tightened where we have reduced the short term debt and more of that is going to happen. In the previous analyst call we had given a guidance that we would be somewhere in the region of 1.5 to 1.18. Sorry, 1.15 to 1.18 or somewhere in that region less than 1.2 in debt equity there.
Of course we were conservative in that guidance. We are at 1.01 but that’s in the year number. If I was to just extrapolate it for the year end, this would be a slightly higher number. Is there a guidance on what we want to give for future? No, not at this stage. We don’t know the quantum of LPG recovery and in what shape it comes that will have an impact on our debt. But I can say as a management team we are very focused on deleveraging ourselves both at the parent level and on a consolidated debt level.
And that’s one of our prime focus this year. We had already shared that in the previous analyst call. I’ll request my finance colleagues to give a bit more detail on the numbers to satisfy your answers there.
Unidentified Speaker
As regards the quantum of normally the year end extra debt which gets added on primarily on the short term front it is around between 6 to 7,000 more than what it is stated here and rest chairman has already covered. Yes, one thing is there for sure that the compensation what is likely to be announced today in case the same comes in that it would be a very significant, significant reduction in the number as compared to the current level says what?
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Okay. So sir, next question related to again the LPG under recovery during the quarter 1 FY26 what was the average under recovery on the domestic LPG and during Q2 FY26 how much it has come down? If you could provide some details on the rupees per cylinder side it would be helpful. And sir, what is your in house estimates for the LPG under recovery for FY26? Any, any reduction do you see compared to the FY25 that would be helpful, yeah.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
See I will give you some broad numbers. We do not want to give all the details right now because there is a decision which is pending on this and but we’ll directionally give you some numbers. So I believe.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
If we look at the last year the total under recovery on LPG was around 10,900 crore. And if you look at the first quarter it is around 2,148 crores. And going forward if we look at Q2 going by the current level of under recovery we may add another thousand crores to the on and about bottom line basis. In terms of the monthly pricing it will keep on it depends upon the Saudi CP contracted CP price. And if I have to list down what. What was the under recovery in the previous few months? It was like in.
In April it was around 167 rupees per cylinder. In May it is 164. In June. 1.
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line disconnected. Please stay connected while we reconnect the management line. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management lines reconnected.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Sorry guys, the line dropped off. We are back. I think Director Finance had just talked about the numbers 166, 164 and 155 in the three months of the last quarter. All I would say is there’s a lot of effort by US and other OMCs also to make sure we are optimizing on the input costs on LPG to reduce any of the under recovery. And if you track Saudi CP that has come down which has also helped us in this period.
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Last question to touch. Suppose the under recoveries are on the sliding side declining side. On the top of that crude will also come down. Do we expect the total debt numbers of 50,000 crore, 51,000 crore will come down to on the lower side. Is that correct? Yeah.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I shared earlier that as a management team we do want to deleverage hpcl. That’s the trend we are using. So part of the money will be used to bring down the debt. We are already working on it. The numbers will be able to give you in the next analyst call or our guidance in the next analyst call.
Yogesh Patil — Analyst
Thanks. Thanks a lot sir. This was really helpful.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prabhu Singh from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead.
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, sir. Just wanted to understand a little bit more on the Rajeshan designs of the economics. We have seen, you know petrochemical spreads remaining depressed probably for longer than what we have anticipated. And obviously in this refinery we have a plan to have almost 30% if I believe petrochemicals.
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
So just a view on, you know. How you see the cycle evolving and does it impact the way our configuration is for Rajasthan refinery or any tweak that is needed to do that. Just your thoughts on this.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Thanks Prabhal. I’ll go first and then I’ll request Director Refineries also to chime in on the numbers. I think our objective right now is to finish the asset. We are Less concerned on the pet cam specs, etc. The key thing is to finish the asset. It has been delayed, but we are now having a line of sight of completion of the asset there. Having said that, yes, we all know petchem spreads have been lower in the last few years. There has been a lot of overcapacity in the market. But we also think they are firming up right now.
So who knows, maybe we will the asset will enter at the right time. On third part of your question, is optimization tweaking feasible? Well, once the asset is done, a lot of things are feasible. And we do have plans for a lot of different things there. But as I said earlier, as a management team, we are very focused right now on getting the asset up and running. The subsequent plans would follow. We will do every asset does an optimization. We talked about Vizag going from 8.2 to 15. We do have plans on what to do further with that in terms of debottle linking, etc.
There will be similar attempts at Barmer also which will help optimize the asset further. I will request Varmanji to add his thoughts on it.
Unidentified Speaker
Maybe a couple of things. Yes, it is one of the largest integrated refining petrochemical complex. From day one, 26% of the product. Comes out as petrochemical. At the same time, it also brought. In the best energy efficiency processes. The integration is done in such a. Way that the cost of production will be kept minimum. These are some of the positives. And we do have opportunities to optimize the intake cost. That is the crude cost also, which. We will be doing along as we go.
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
Thank you. Right. So. Thank you so much. One more question. If I can slip in.
operator
May we request you return. Mr. Prabhal, may we request you use headset? Yes, go ahead.
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
Yeah. Sir, just one more question. This was about the inventory loss that has happened in this quarter. Forgive me for sounding simplistic, but the extent of loss seems to be a bit larger than I think what most of us were looking at. So just wanted to understand is there something we are getting wrong in terms of the holding period or the price changes?
Unidentified Speaker
GRM got impacted a bit more this.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
And what we will do thoughts on this one. So Praval, you run the refineries on Excel sheets? We run the refineries on an actual thing where we have so many large customer bases to handle. There will be decisions. We will take a different point of time on whether to increase our inventory or reduce the inventory. If you track what was happening during this period on geopolitical events you would see there could have been decisions we have taken to buy some extra cargo as an insurance and all those kind of things. At the end of it we run the business to ensure supply and continuity.
Are there? Yes, there are going to be times when we are holding more stock either of finished products or inventories. Given our judgment about how the demand supply situation will pan out. This was the period when there was a lot of challenge in Israel, Iran, Israel things supplies were a lot of you were writing about state of hormones and how it will impact. So we as companies are also responding on what we wanted to do and how do we ensure the supply. So we probably carried more inventories during this period. Can you repeat it please?
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
I was just. Thank you for the reply sir. I’ll come back for more questions. Thanks.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumit Rohra from Smartson Capital. Please go ahead.
Sumeet Rohra — Analyst
Yeah. Hi sir, very good morning to you Chairman sir and the entire hbcl. So firstly I would like to congratulate you. It’s an extremely superior performance what you have delivered. Because the way I always look at it is LPG is a control product. So that’s got nothing to do with us. And you know, looking at that, you know you’ve reported about a 6 and a half 7,000 crore profit which is truly staggering. I mean Sir, I remember five years ago HPCL used to report 6,000 crore annual profit for a year. Today you have taken this company to a level where you are delivering this kind of profit on a quarter.
So sir, firstly, many, many congratulations on that. You guys are doing a fantastic job. It’s truly heartening as an investor to see, you know, the transformation which HPCL is going through. All thanks to a fantastic management team headed by all of you. So many, many congratulations on that sir. Now sir, I just have a few questions. If you can just help me understand is a firstly, you know, is you know, on the Vizag, so on the residue upgradation project now you said that you know we’ll commission it now. So is my understanding correct that the middle distillates to today which are lower for us, you know, would actually then go to 84, 85% and that in turn would get GRMs up by about 2 to $3.
You know, if you can explain a bit on that. So secondly, you know it was very heartening when you spoke about the operational, you know, excellence program which you started. So sir, this 1500 crore of which you said of incremental savings, you Know if you can basically just you know also dwell a little bit on, you know. So that’s already started as you said in 250 crore in Q1 etc and you know how do we plan to improvise more on that? And so just one more thing is you know on the LPG part. So now I’m sorry I missed that part but is my understanding correct that from September onwards the LPG loss on a cylinder would come down to about 50 rupees or 60 rupees or something of that sort? Sir, thank you very much.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Thanks. Thanks Sumit. Thanks for your kind words for the management team. We all get egged on and pushed on by the sharp questions you all ask on these. So they are very good guiding forces for us on what we need to do on your. Let me answer in the reverse thing because I have probably forgotten the first question. So you on the LPG recovery. Yes the numbers could be there now what it will be in September we’ll have to see. But as we talked the trend was downwards and there has been a significant drop in Saudi CP last last month.
So yes, the trend is still downwards there. So I think that would. It would be. I don’t want to give an exact number on what it would be in September but it’s directionally headed towards that. So I think that’s point number one on Vizag upgradation it will be about 83% distillates. If I’m not mistaken. You want to add Vartanji on something. It’s about 4, 5% more than what.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
We have been doing now it will be crossing that 80% around 83 we’ll be reaching.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah and we still have one more step of optimization further on this which is when we are able to pump in natural gas into the refinery. Right now it does not have a pipeline connection so there will be one more uplift which will come later. But by and large you are directly there. The distillate fields will start going up. On your third part on the program on Samriddhi I think there are. We are attempting it at multiple things. One being sharper at how we spend our money. Where do we spend our money. So there are a lot of initiatives around real cost takeouts.
Second there is operational efficiency is being built in. Just to give you an example, 60 bottling plants we have. How much throughput I can get through from each, what is the cost for each of the plants. Even if I benchmark my own plants within the whole 60 plants I can get improvement areas and Every fan you stop or every light to turn off or every time you increase the speed of the carousel, it gives benefit. So there are initiatives like that. But there are a lot of big ticket initiatives which come from trying different things on sourcing and movement of products.
We are attempting a lot of those things. Shifting some movements from traditional way to a different route. Different route, leveraging coastal, trying to do different things. If you notice on how we are going to market in terms of buying our spot cargoes, you will see there are certain different things we are attempting. I won’t say thing A is the strategy or the thing B is the strategy. All I would say is we are much more nimble in terms of what we are attempting in the market. Just for one example, I can quote this because this is in public domain.
We used to earlier go and buy every one cargo every week. Now there are times when we go to the market to buy four together. So those of you who understand cargo buying, you would know the leverage which can happen both in terms of our own optimization versus what we get from the market is there. The participative interest in our cargoes at times is really higher. Teams are running very hard. We have upgraded some of our tools in terms of optimization. So there are a lot of, I would say thousand such things which are happening all across the place which will give us the results.
It’s a very ambitious target. I think we are very confident of getting to 1000 plus which. But we want to push ourselves towards 1500. Just to give you a context, if it’s 1500 this will be 0.6 dollars per barrel for the total number of barrels issued. Am I right on that point? For everything we sell this year, this will be 0.$6 per barrel. If we get to 1500 even if we fall short slightly and we will keep reporting in on Alanis call. If you ask my thing on where I’m willing to give a guidance, I’m willing to give a guidance between thousand to fifteen hundred somewhere in that range we will call.
I’m confident of thousand. 15 is a Aspirational goal but we’ll work for that.
Sumeet Rohra — Analyst
Sure, sir. And sir, if I may just add one thing now this as an investor point of view from an investor angle. So I truly, I truly understand that you know we are going to now deliver etc. But sir, at some point of time, you know, after you finish the delivering and you know when you’re satisfied with all your financial matrix ratio, I humbly request that you know, you must consider buyback because today our market cap of 80,000 crore versus the balance sheet value of 2 lakh crore clearly is a big mismatch, you know, and there’s absolutely no question that, you know, a company of this magnitude cannot be trading at this palky market cap.
So I would humbly request if you can, you know, at some, at the opportune point of time, please do consider this because. Because it’ll definitely be very value accretive for all stakeholders.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Fair point. We take note of that.
Sumeet Rohra — Analyst
Thank you sir. And wish you all the best and good luck to you for the future. Sir. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Nitin Tiwari from Philip Capital India Ltd. Please go ahead.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
Hi sir, good morning. Thanks for the opportunity and congratulations on what set of numbers and why. Why improvement in your reported numbers. So my question, first question is related to your refinery margins. So the refinery margins were like, you know, for lack of better words, are disappointing in this quarter at $3. Whereas all the CAG spreads, if we look at whether it’s basically gasoline or gas, oil, all the tax spreads have improved on a sequential basis. So why is that the case? And even if we adjust for the inventory losses that are there still the adjusted refinery margins would be lower than what they were in the previous quarter.
Whereas the track spreads have improved on a sequential basis. So how should we look at this metric going ahead? I mean what your guidance would be on that, especially in light of the project Samriti that you pointed out, where you’re looking at cost savings, etc. So I mean your thoughts on that please. That would be my first.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
Sure. I think on the refining margins, what you see after the inventory losses, we’ll give you the specific numbers on refining margins. If the inventory losses weren’t there, if.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
You look at the core GRM, if the inventory losses were not there, HPCL has a core GRM of 6.54. Now if you have to compare it with respect to the Q1 of last year, it was 5.$35. So it has improved compared to last time.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
Sir, I was referring to the. Sorry. Sorry for the interruption. Sir, I was referring to the March quarter. Your reported number was 8.44 and adjusted for an inventory, again it was 7.1. If I. Correct, if I’m wrong over there, whereas the track spreads have improved versus the March quarter. So ideally our refinery margin should have gone up in June quarter. I mean unless until there’s something else actually which you would probably want to highlight.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
If you look at the cracks and Spreads don’t get factored as part of inventory losses. So even if you look at Y on Y, it is even quarter on quarter. Yes, you are right. It was 7.1. If I go by the Q4 2425 number, which is 6.54 in the current quarter. And the differential is primarily because of the spreads also and the configuration of the refineries which we have. But in terms of the various performance of the refinery is concerned per se. If you see we had a lowest fuel and loss in this part.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
Yes, sir. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, please. I appreciate the lower fuel and loss part. That’s why like, you know, I was not able to put everything together for fuel. Losses are lower, the tax spreads have improved versus the March quarter. Then why is that our adjusted refinery margin still lower than the March quarter?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think we’ve explained the numbers. These are complex assets. Sometimes some things fall in a particular direction there. Because if you see between quarter and quarter also while it is lower, it’s not an alarmingly lower number that, oh, we have suddenly forgotten how to run refineries. I think we are conscious that we need to improve that. There is a lot of efforts. You talked about Samriti. Yes, it includes a lot of improvement initiatives. We know the areas where we want to improve and there will be a concerted effort on it. Hopefully in the subsequent quarters you will see the core GRMs going upwards as first the rough comes up and some of the operational initiatives which come up, they are, they are they also sort of operational improvement initiatives.
They start giving results. See when you start comparing numbers quarter on quarter, there are always sometimes a particular month, a particular unit was down and all those kind of or was under turnaround, etc. So I think those things are, I would say more in the realm of operational, I would say day to day operational challenges. There was nothing alarmingly different from the way we ran the refinery. Are there areas where we can improve? Absolutely. And you will see that improvement in the coming quarters.
Sumeet Rohra — Analyst
Fair enough. My second question would be with respect to the ethanol blending debate that is going on in the country. And so just wanted to understand that what is the current ethanol bending rate? What is our target, if at all? I mean this rate is going to go up. And what is our ethanol sourcing price at this moment?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
So on the ethanol blending, yes, there is some debate. It has got, we all know it’s got accentuated after some influencer also wrote about it recently. 20% blending is a mandate by government of India. All of us have to follow that Mandate, if I’m not mistaken, we are. I don’t remember the numbers offhand but you know that you can correct. But we are close to 19 point something, 19.95 or something. We are following the mandate and our plan for this here is to follow the mandate in terms of ethanol sourcing. There is an industry wide optimization which happens on ethanol sourcing so that the distances are travel less.
We also keep on doing our own initiatives. Can we move things from here, from by rail to another location and all those kind of things. So we are trying to optimize whatever we can do. If you are asking specifically on the price of ethanol, I don’t remember it offhand. I’ll ask my team if they remember the price. If not, we can give you.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
That varies depending upon the feedstock for sugar or grains or for maize and all. So it depends upon the price of the product.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
But the government listed price, so we go by that as on date, as we speak. Notwithstanding the social media controversies or the campaigns around it. Our plan for the year is to follow the government mandate of 20% ethanol blending. Pan India.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
If this understanding is wrong that I suppose the cost of procurement of ethanol, I mean excluding taxes, is about 57, 58 rupees. Right.
Nitin Tiwari — Analyst
So I was just like, you know, trying to understand that this price is higher than what your refinery gate size would be for petroleum products. So in effect like, you know, more ethanol that you blend in petrol, there is a possibility of you losing margin because in a sense, I mean while you’re blending an expensive raw material in your product, your selling price is more or less, I mean that is unchanged, that still remains at where it is. Is that understanding correct?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I would say that’s partially correct in some form. And you can look at it, there is more to ethanol blending than just these two numbers. There are characteristics of fuels, what gets changed, what we can do with our refinement, refineries around it. So there is a lot more at play with these. There are a lot of technical aspects around it. But the way I look at it is also it’s a mandate by government of India given to all the people. It’s a government of India program. We all have to. It’s like you and I might not like that income tax we pay, but we have to pay the tax.
That’s the government mandate there. So is the management team kind of losing sleep on it? No. All what we are trying to do is optimize what is in our control. The logistics, how do I ship, how do I store what Inventories. I keep making sure my blending is okay, making sure I’m not carrying excess inventories. That is something. We are very focused on ethanol blending because unlike refinery happening in one place, ethanol blending happens in multiple different places. So we are trying to work hard on operational aspects of it. If government of India changes the mandates of upwards or downwards, we’ll react to it.
You have something to add? Yeah.
Unidentified Speaker
Just to answer him, regarding the lower core GRM in this quarter compared to the previous quarter. This quarter we had a higher inventory of ISD that is intermediate stock. And once this will be converted into the final stock that value will get realized in the subsequent quarter in the July quarter that would have already. So it is not loss of value. It is the only thing is that on the month end when this period got closed, this product was lying as an ISD where the valuation is less.
Unidentified Speaker
And just to give you more comfort around the entire thing. The reason for that is that’s what I said earlier. One of our units was under maintenance, one of our diesel converting units was under maintenance. So we had to carry more intermediate in our tanks which will get processed. So when you see the next quarter numbers you will see that reflecting in the higher distillate yield for that refinery. So it was more of an operational thing, nothing unusual.
Prabhu Singh — Analyst
Understood. Thank you so much for the answers. I’ll get back in the queue for more.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of S. Ramesh from Nirmal Bang Equities. Please go ahead.
Ramesh — Analyst
Good morning and thank you very much and congratulations on your results despite all the challenges. So the first question is somebody may clarify. There was a mention of a figure of thousand crores for LPG losses. So are you suggesting that the LPG. Loss will come down by thousand crores? Yeah, going by the current level of the Saudi CP prices in case there is no change in the retail selling price of the cylinder. What you are saying is right?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah. Okay. Now quarter quarter one. Director Finance talked about quarter one under recovery being lower than just the prorated of last year.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Okay. So if you look at the Vizag rough project, the overall capex is about 30,000 crores as per your presentation. So how much is the balance the actual project cost for the rough project. And if you look at the breakeven analysis, you know, I’m just trying to get a sense of if you take the entire 30,000 crores you need an upside of around $4 just to break even on the interest and depreciation. So how would you see the economics of this capex on the project and what is the absolute margin you require on an integrated basis for Vizag to make it, you know, profitable and get double digit roc.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
So I think just on the capex, the total capex what the number you say, give or take a few hundred is exactly the number part of it is already been capitalized which is the refinery expansion section. I talked in my opening comments about 8.22 mtpa going on to 15 mtpa. Refinery and throughput in the first quarter was actually 4 million tonnes. So that part the benefits are already starting to come in with the rough getting commissioned and stabilized. I would also use the word stabilized because it is a complex technology first time being attempted in India at this scale.
We would see an uplift on the displayed yields and resulting uplift in the grm. The way we look at it is it is going to be a profitable project. I don’t look at it actually we don’t look at it the break even the way you are looking at $4 breakeven and all because there is a lot of complexity which can be done the way RUFF works for us. Even more than just what is the distillate yield Thing is it allows me a wider spectrum of crudes which I can handle and give me more collateral benefit as an organization.
And when we have RUFF and Barmer all coming on stream our asset footprint is higher. Our choice, choice of we can process more dirtier crudes, we can manage our crudes between our refineries, we can do a lot more asset based swaps, etc. The flexibility is something which will not get translated into just the IRR of that project. The flexibility goes into the system there. So as a management team we are not really worried about $4 being or I don’t know how the four dollar calculation is there. It doesn’t rest with me fully but I’ll let you my finance team answer onto that of their question.
But we are quite confident that once REF comes in we have an incremental lift off on our EBITDA month on month and already we are seeing an incremental impact on EBITDA as one of you just mentioned in terms of how the trajectory has gone upwards. So we are quite confident on where we are. We are I would say cautiously optimistic on this getting completed. Cautious we are using because as said earlier, it is a very very complex technology. But anything to add on this? Okay.
Ramesh — Analyst
Hello. Yes, yes please. If you have a follow up question please let us know. Yeah, so before I go to the Next question on cng. So the reason why I asked about Vizag is your branch accounting notes. In the results on page two, the auditor’s notes, there’s a loss of 512 crores after taxes. So post the rough project and the expansion benefits from which quarter can we expect that number to become positive and what is the kind of steady state run rate? Because that’s part of your overall results. Right? So just to get a sense in terms of that number, that’s a loss as we speak in the first quarter.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah, yeah, but the losses because in my initial statement I had given you the inventory loss at refinery of more than 1400 odd crores. So that primarily is the reason that it ends.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Okay, so on cng can we get the details on the standalone gas in terms of what is the current sales volume in first quarter compared to the last year first quarter and if possible the fourth quarter. We given some numbers for the full year in the annual report. But just look at the quarterly run rate. If you can give us the standalone distribution sales for your 14 gas and how many of them are in commercial operation now. See if I have to just give the sales volume in this quarter it is around 32 tmt of CNG sales. Visa was 22 tmt in the previous. Quarter.
Ramesh — Analyst
And what was your next question? So what will be the corresponding number for fourth quarter? 25. And how many CNG stations are in. Pardon. And so one Q25 for fourth quarter what will it be. Last year? 2727.
Unidentified Speaker
So fourth quarter 2527. The current quarter is 32 Q4 of 2425 was 27 tmp and the corresponding period Q1 2425 was 22.
Ramesh — Analyst
Yeah, got it. So how many CNG stations or gas and commercial operation now and when do what would be the number Total CNG.
Unidentified Speaker
Stations is 2070 odd. CNG stations in under HPCL but in in our GS it is around 350 odd.
Unidentified Participant
The annual report has mentioned that it’s already up to 475. So as on date how many of them are in commercial operation? And as we move along in FY26 and 27 how many GA’s or CNG stations will be in commercial operation? All are in more or less all are in commercial operation. There’s only a few months lag between like just getting it ready and getting it the gas in onto the stations happens reasonably quickly. The number which you are referring to maybe maybe including the JV once I am talking about where we are the the gas Are with us.
Ramesh — Analyst
Okay. Okay. So is your ebitda? If I may just, you know, dwell on this a bit more. Is your reported EBITDA including some positive EBITDA contribution or there’s a loss in the standalone GS?
Unidentified Speaker
No, we. We are having positive EBITDA from our GS. Okay. So one, I would like to give a suggestion. IOC has already started giving the gas segment details. So we may also like to give that sometime in the first half or, you know, starting the second half. It’ll be useful for us to understand the progress in the gas business. Thank you very much and wish you all the best. Okay, thank you.
Unidentified Speaker
Noted the suggestion.
operator
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all participants in the conference, please limit your questions to one per participant. The next question is from the line of Achal Shah from Ambit Capital. Please go ahead, sir.
Achal Shah. — Analyst
Am I audible? Yes, sir.
Achal Shah. — Analyst
What kind of volumes and percentage capacity utilizations are we expecting for FY26 at our jara terminal? And where can we go with respect to volumes and percentage capacity utilization by FY30 and 35?
operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line disconnected. Please stay connected while we reconnect the management. Ladies and gentlemen, we have the management line reconnected. Sir.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, please go ahead. I think.
Achal Shah. — Analyst
Yeah.
Ramesh — Analyst
Sir, I’ll repeat my question. Yes, sir. What kind of volumes and percentage capacity utilizations are we expecting at chara terminal for FY26? And where can we go from here? Like FY30 and F35. Where are we seeing these volumes and utilization levels?
Unidentified Speaker
Yeah, so I think FY I don’t have the exact numbers. You have the exact numbers? We can dig out the exact numbers in terms of right now. As you know, the breakwater is not fully complete. As a result, we cannot offload cargoes during the monsoon period. Post that we are starting with the October onwards. We have our from the previous gas deal. We will start having our cargoes already. And I think, if I’m not mistaken, four cargoes are being planned this year for the second half. And of course we can always look for additional spot cargoes.
Whatever gas we had has been fully sold for this year. We aren’t expecting a massive capacity utilization. It will probably be low teens. If I’m not mistaken, I don’t have the exact number with me. But from next year onwards we would be looking at a further increase. Yeah. In the terminals there. And I’ll ask Rajneeshi to give the numbers. He has dug out the numbers. As this progresses 27. As I talked earlier, we already have signed a deal for 27. We already have a second deal done for 28 onwards. And more of these would become.
We are also looking out for giving out capacity to others who are landing in there. So this is the year when we hope to complete the breakwater and from next year operate as an all weather port. You want to share those additional numbers? See, this year we are targeting that the capacity utilization will be around 10 to 15%. And next year we will be targeting between 35 to 40%.
Achal Shah. — Analyst
Got it, sir. So just one last question if I may. What is the current Russian discount in Q1 dollar per barrel. And in July 25 dollar per barrel.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
That depends on the moment of the trade and difficult to give you a broad number on. What is the things I gave you, what is the impact on us and what amount of Russian crude we are using which was 13% and I told you that the impact if we were to use zero was sort of not or it was easily absorbable by us in terms of our current performance. I would not like to go into specific discounts on any specific cargo.
Ramesh — Analyst
Thanks sir. Thanks for the clarity.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Mayank Maheshwari from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Mayank Maheshwari — Analyst
Thanks for the call. Sir, one question from my end was more related to the marketing side. If you look at both on diesel and gasoline, you have seen a bit of a loss in market share. Can you just talk us about the strategy in the wake of the competition now, especially from private players as well? What are you kind of thinking on kind of maintaining or increasing market share after the Vizag refinery upgrade?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think that’s a great question. Two things I would say. One, when you look at the lost share, if you look at the last year Q1, you will see we had literally a spike in that period. If I remember the numbers correctly, it was a 5.5% market share. So the base effect for us was higher. Having said that, we believe we could actually have done better in the market. July has been better for us in terms of fight from competition. Well, that’s a reality. We have our own strengths. The private sector has their own strengths.
I become less worried about what they are doing. I’m more keen on what we can do. We talked about upgrading the throughput. We talked about greater dealer involvement. So that’s an area where we are reinforcing ourselves. Trying to do more and more of activities so that the customer connect with us, the customer experience with us goes better. When you are handling 25,000 retail outlets. Almost 25,024 to be precise. It’s a long exercise. As I said earlier, we have launched a program on 4,500 of our retail outlets where we are doing many of these experiments which will result in throughput increase but more importantly it is sharpening the way we are getting into the market.
So it’s going to be a market share is never an easy thing to fight for especially in the market in retail. So it’s going to be a fest and we are gearing up for it.
Mayank Maheshwari — Analyst
So just a follow up on that. I think the industrial side is where I think there is more pain. So is there anything that you’re thinking about on that front?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
You can go deeper into the number. I won’t say that there is a market share loss but remember the fact that we buy a lot of product. There was no business case for me to sell product at lower than RTP which some of the others have done in the market. They might have surplus product on it. If we have surplus product we can also fight that battle and use some of our refining margins to gain the market share. But in this quarter, if you are a cricket follower, I would say that ball was well left by us because that market was going way outside the off stump in terms of even 11,000 rupees scale or 10,000 rupees scale for discount.
We took a very conscious call of preserving our bottom line rather than preserving our market share.
Mayank Maheshwari — Analyst
Great analogy sir. Thank you.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Vikash Chant from clsa. Please go ahead.
Vikash Chant — Analyst
Hi, thanks for taking my questions specifically. I think you’ve spent some time on Samratdi but there are other two projects that you talked about. One was ABHIUDE and the other one was. Sorry I forget the name which was to increase throughput per retail outlets. So when you talk about this thousand to fifteen hundred crore EBITDA gain is this across these projects all put together or these would all be other things which are more longer term and where gains will come in but over and above that number but slightly longer time to come in.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
See the way we look at the Number thousand to 1500 crore that’s the Samridis are umbrella initiative. As I said we have launched it. We are doing it currently internally without external help. But there are a lot of initiatives under it. The way we count that number is this target is it should be locked in in some form. Either it is a one off gain which gets accrued in the year. You know you Source certain deals better or you do optimization on certain kind of things. So there are one off things but there are the structural things which we are doing.
They should be locked in on a run rate basis by end of the year. Clearly that comes covers a wide range of things. It actually Abu Dhab is a second. I’ll talk on that also so that there is clarity on this one. There is a wide range of initiatives from operational efficiencies to different kind of sourcing, different things, differently sourcing efficiencies. If you can factor cost kind of thing. There are wider arrays of, you know, how we are doing, crudes, etc. There are logistics savings. So you can see a mix of sourcing operational and better utilization of cash.
Those are the three buckets I would say on Abu Dhair. It’s actually not a cost takeout or there will be an indirect aback for ebitda. But Abu Dhai was to the question being asked by the gentleman earlier. It is about strengthening our retail and making sure our asset throughput goes up. We have lower throughput than BPCL on an average basis. We want to close that gap and focus on making sure our retail outlets are generating more money. It will have an indirect impact on ebitda but we are not counting that because then it becomes too complex accounting.
I want to keep that counting very simple. So I hope that clarifies the difference between those two.
Vikash Chant — Analyst
Yeah, just one small follow up and then maybe one clarification because I did not firstly I did not hear the number on investment loss on marketing. It was 600 crores you said, right?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yes, 600. You heard it right.
Vikash Chant — Analyst
Yeah. So just. And coming back to the Abhidhe part. So does that also mean that we will be far more judicious than where oil marketing companies have traditionally been in terms of opening up of retail outlets?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Since we are far more focused on getting that metric on, you know, throughput and asset turns right, will that mean that we will be far more judicious in terms of locations and density etc. I am not trying to suggest on what the processes were historically, but is that something which is part of the. Yes.
Vikash Chant — Analyst
Yeah. Okay. Thank you so much sir. Thanks for taking my questions.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Somayavi from Evan Dispark. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Participant
Thanks for the opportunity, sir. So first question is on crude sourcing on a blended basis between Q4 to Q1, would crude sourcing cost, would it have gone up? That’s the first part. Second, what are the dynamics that changed between Q4 to Q1 which led to a lower Russian crude procurement. And you also mentioned that it was more used on the eastern part. Is there, is there a flight angle, cost angle or anything? What dynamics change and is that kind of reversing now? That’s my first question.
Unidentified Participant
Yeah. Did you get the first part of the question?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Yeah. See if you look at the results, that itself is signaling that the crude cost has come down. And that is primarily because the crude prices have softened. That is getting reflected by almost a reduction of 10,000 crore in the cost of goods consumed.
Unidentified Participant
Just a small clarification that I was referring to the crude discounts that we get on a blended basis between Q4 to Q1. Has that narrowed on a blended basis for our overall portfolio?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
It’s very difficult to give an answer to that because every week you go for crude buying, the discounts vary. It’s a very dynamic market. It’s a demand supply driven market. So I wouldn’t want to generalize on it. I think at a general level you can take the guidance which Director Finance gave on the overall crude because otherwise we’ll be giving you a wrong impression. Crude’s very same. Crude could be on a discount, a lower discount or a premium this week and on dated Brent and next week it’s in a different position based on who has the cargoes, etc.
So, so we’ll probably leave it at that. On the other part on your east Coast. See when we buy the crude and we process it, there are two aspects we should understand. There is obviously a cost of it, which landed cost, yes, rates are different, etc. But that is only one part of it. The bigger part is what do I do with the crude and what do I do with the mixture of the crudes I have? What demand am I meeting? So there is a big science behind. You know, each food has its own signature, the essays around it, depending on what products I have, what inventories I have.
It’s a very complex buying thing. So it’s not just crude price and the freight landing at my refinery that’s only one time the input. There are times when we buy a crude which is much more expensive than what is landing cheaper because that gives me a product set which I can sell in that month at a much better price and hence my net realization is better. So it’s a very complex process I would say. But in generalization, if you ask me to be more specific on why it wasn’t used in west coast, well, when we went to the market we Got better crudes which were giving us better realization.
A lot of if you see what has gone up in our portfolio in that period is actually West African crude. So we managed to get some good cargoes on West African crude. It comes in distance and time is shorter there and freight is shorter. And then they were matching the products which we wanted to sell. So our portfolio has got a bit more. The West African crude in our portfolio has increased during this period.
Unidentified Speaker
I’ll only just say that the decision to buy crude doesn’t depends upon what is the extent of discount being given but on what which crude will make more higher product gpw we call it higher group gross product worth of or what value it will create in our system through our model.
Unidentified Participant
One clarification on the debt part. What was the working capital released this quarter? And also you did mention Q4 generally is on the higher side. So if you just help us Bridge between Q4 to Q1. What are the main charts in terms. Of debt deductions this quarter?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
The short term Debt is around 6547 primarily which is used for the working capital. And in March it was around 20,000.
Unidentified Speaker
And the second question was how much is the spike in the year end so that they can factor in around 6 to 8,000. Yeah.
operator
Thank you. The next question is from the line of Saurabhanda from Citigroup. Please go ahead.
Saurabh Handa — Analyst
Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. So the questions are primarily pertaining to the LPG side. So assuming there is some announcement in the near term on LPG subsidy, is it fair to assume this would pertain to last year’s under recoveries?
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
I think difficult to comment on it because as I said, all things are under review. You’ve also read what’s in the press. I can only comment on it. I won’t comment on what’s being discussed between us and the government. But we hope there is a more comprehensive solution. So let’s see, we’re keeping our fingers crossed on it.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Just on that. I mean is there any discussion on a better mechanism for you to account for subsidy receivables from the government? Because otherwise it just significantly understates your income statement. If you aren’t able to account for it at least as a receivable, which was the situation prior to this buffer accounting.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Now understand that I don’t know whether that’s the topmost thing government wants to solve, I would leave it to them to handle it. See, the way I know this causes a concern to all who are tracking it and it causes ideally I Would also like to have a clean, consistent set of reporting quarter on quarter without having to explain buffers etc. But that’s also the reality on net. Again as a management team we work within the constraints which where we operate in and we try to do our maximum on the operational side. So let’s see.
Hopefully things will. Let’s wait for the decisions. Maybe some things will come out which will help us all understand this thing better.
Saurabh Handa — Analyst
Okay and so just again following up on that. So if there is an announcement anytime soon, I mean you did say that it would bring down your debt. So are you expecting a cash disbursal also to happen soon? Or that could happen like later in the year with supplementary.
Saurabh Handa — Analyst
I’ll wait for the decision is what I would say. Sure, understand. Thank you so much.
operator
Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Due to time constraints that was the last question for the day. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Vardarajan Shiva Shankaran for closing comments.
Varatharajan Sivasankaran — Analyst
Thank you everyone. Sir, I also had a couple of questions maybe that address right now. One was on the HMBL details like you know, if you can share. And second issue was like you know constantly we keep getting queries on the potential or possible increase in the Capex cost on in the Rajasthan refinery. While we know you already spent almost 60,000 crores and the overall number is 72,000 odd and the escalation should not be. There’s not much scope for escalation. However we saying that and you saying saying it will be very different. So if you can give some inputs on that.
Unidentified Participant
Thank you. Yeah. On the Rajasthan refinery you talked about the previously approved numbers. We are taking a final stock on where the project cost would end. I think by the time on the next analyst call we will be able to have a sense on it. Obviously it’s a complex project, there have been time delays, etc. All I can say at this point of time on the hard cost costs we do not anticipate any major changes from the last estimate. The delays have obviously impacted working capital which depending on where we commission will have some amount of additional working capital burden onto the project.
Not sorry, working capital IDC burden. You guys are smart and you can calculate that by the time next analyst call comes in we will be able to give a guidance on what we expect as the broad final cost on the. On the project. I hope that was there a second part of your question? No, that is perfectly fine if you have HML numbers if you can share it.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
HML the GRM was around seven plus dollars per barrel and in terms of ebitda, it’s around thousand crores.
operator
Great. In case you have a closing comments, please buy it.
Unidentified Speaker
Closing comment, closing comment. Okay, thank you Rajan. And thank you all for your interest on it. I hope we’ve been able to answer the questions. As I said in my opening comments, our teams worked hard on delivering a strong performance. Some of you have recognized it, some of you thought it missed your estimates. Well, I would say from our management side it we didn’t miss our estimates. We did aspire for more and hopefully we will do more. But we were proud of the achievement what the team has done. As you can see, we are gearing up to take HPCL to the next orbit in terms of its performance.
Many of you asked some very sharp questions, some have given suggestions. We will take note of that and we would like to keep the dialogue on with all of you. You give us valuable suggestions. Some of you met us, met me, met Director of Finance, CD Corporate Finance and others. If others want to meet at times, we are happy to have a dialogue there and otherwise we’ll meet at the end of the next quarter, hopefully with some good results behind us and which shows a consistent track record of performance for hpcl. Thank you all for your interest in the company.
Thank you all for supporting us. Thank you all for challenging us, which is very important in our business. And have a good day.
Vikas Kaushal — Chairman and Managing Director
Thanks a lot sir. It was a pleasure having you. I should thank all the participants as well as the management for taking time out to have this very fruitful discussion. Thank you everyone and have a nice day.
operator
Thank you. On behalf of Antique Broking Ltd. That concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us. And you may now disconnect your lines.