Essar Oil, the country's second-biggest private refiner, announced on Tuesday that it was aiming to almost double its revenues in the next fiscal.

L K Gupta, managing director & chief executive officer of the refiner, said in a conference call after the company announced its third-quarter results that the company expected to cross revenues of Rs 1 lakh crore next fiscal.

In the last fiscal, Ruias-controlled Essar Oil generated Rs 58,336 crore in revenue; and in the first three quarter of the current fiscal, revenue jumped to Rs 64,928 crore.

Speaking on the topic, Mr. Gupta said, "If not this year, we expect to cross revenues of Rs1 lakh crore next fiscal." For the past quarter, he said the company's throughput jumped to a record high after optimization, as the company also profited from the hike in the gap between light crude and heavy crude.

In the three months through December, Essar Oil enjoyed an increase of 86 per cent in revenue to Rs 25,909 crore over the corresponding period of the previous year. Operating profit jumped a massive 739 per cent to Rs 1,242 crore, while gross refining margin climbed more than 200 per cent to $9.75 a barrel.

Essar Oil also confirmed that it had won an approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to gather up to $2.2 billion through external commercial borrowings, which would enable it to significantly cover its current loan of $2.8 billion.