Indian Oil Corporation said on Wednesday that its net profit has surged by 51.5 per cent for the quarter ended June 2003 to Rs 944.67 crore (Rs 9.45 billion) from Rs 624.99 crore (Rs 6.25 billion) in the same period last year.

Turnover during the April-June quarter went up by 10.7 per cent to Rs 30,874 crore (Rs 308.74 billion) from Rs 27,898 crore (Rs 278.98 billion) a year ago, a company statement said.

IOC's seven refineries increased their total output to 8.54 million tonnes during the period from 8.46 million tones last year.

Its pipelines network transported 10.72 million tonnes of crude oil products as against 9.72 million tonnes last year.

The company sold 11.34 million metric tonnes of petroleum products, besides exporting 0.43 million tonnes during the first quarter of 2003-04.

IOC chairman M S Ramachandran attributed the improved performance on sharp focus on customer satisfaction, product quality and technology upgradation.

"Improvement in refinery margins and receipt of prior year margin dues, besides firming up of the Indian currency against the US dollar also contributed to the enhanced bottomline," Ramachandran said.