Mumbai, July 25, 2008: Reliance Industries, nation's largest private firm, on Thursday reported a 13 per cent jump in net profit in the first quarter of current fiscal on the back of good refining margins.

Reliance posted a net profit of Rs 41.10 billion in April-June, against Rs 36.30 billion a year ago, the company said in a press statement.

The company that operates a 660,000 barrels per day refinery at Jamnagar, earned US$ 15.7 on every barrel of oil that it processed, much higher than the Asian average of US$ 8-9 per barrel.

Sales rose 38 per cent to Rs 430.50 billion in the quarter. For Reliance, which also is the nation's largest petrochemical firm, refining offset lower margins in chemical business. Refining saw 46 per cent increase in revenues to Rs 325.87 billion most due to rise in price of petroleum products globally.

The company which has converted its Jamnagar refinery into an export house, saw outward shipments of 5.3 million tons of products contributing US$ 5.7 billion in revenues.

Commenting on the results, RIL's Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said: "At Reliance we continued to scale new peaks in financial performance despite challenging business environment including domestic inflation and weakening of the leading economies of the world".

During the quarter ended June 30, 2008, RIL's production of petrochemical products was up by 4 per cent to 5 million tonnes from 4.8 million tonnes in the same quarter previous fiscal.