Mumbai, April 23 Reliance Petroleum Ltd (RPL), the refinery arm of the Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), on Thursday reported a net profit of Rs.84 crore ($17 million) for the quarter ended March 31 on a turnover of Rs.3,678 crore.

Previous years' figures were not available as the $6.7-billion RPL started crude processing operations Dec 25, 2008.

The company processed 3.6 million tonnes of crude till March 31, RPL said in a regulatory filing.

Talking about the success of the commercial operations, RPL chairman Mukesh Ambani said in the statement: "RPL refinery has achieved start-up and successful stabilisation of its operations within a short period of time."

On March 2, the boards of the two companies approved the merger of RPL with RIL, creating one of the largest refining entities in the world with a combined crude oil processing capacity of 1.24 million barrels per day.