Bangladeshi Eastern Lubricants reported a nearly six-fold jump in earnings for the six months ended Dec. 31, compared to the same period of last year.
The company, a subsidiary of state-owned Bangladesh Petroleum Corp., posted net earnings of 10.7 million taka (U.S. $136,000) for the first half of its 2015-2016 fiscal year, compared to 1.8 million taka during the first half of 2014-2015.
The company, which is based in Chittagong, managed to improve its bottom line despite the fact that revenue dropped 9 percent year to year.
BPC owns just over 50 percent of Eastern Lubricants, which contract blends finished lubricants for three other BPC subsidiaries – Meghna Petroleum Ltd., Padma Oil Co. and Jamuna Oil Co. All three are oil products marketers offering lubricants and fuels. Jamuna also has a joint venture with ExxonMobil, MJL Bangladesh Ltd., which was formerly known as Mobil Jamuna Lubricants. MJL operates its own blending plant and also imports lubricants.