BENGALURU  - State-run refiner Indian Oil Corp Ltd's profit more than doubled for the third quarter, the company said on Friday, helped by an increase in the value of its inventory due to a jump in crude oil prices.

IOC, the country's top refiner, posted a net profit of 49.17 billion rupees ($673.75 million) for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with 23.39 billion rupees a year earlier.

Revenue from operations during the quarter rose to 1.47 trillion rupees.

An inventory gain is booked when oil prices rise during the time when the company is refining and shipping petroleum products. Brent crude prices jumped 26.50% in the December quarter.

The company also declared an interim dividend of 7.50 rupees per share.

Average gross refining margin for April 2020 to December 2020 was at $2.96 per barrel, compared with $3.34 per barrel for the same period last year, the state-run company said.

IOC, along with subsidiary Chennai Petroleum, controls about a third of the country's five million-barrels-per-day (bpd) refining capacity.

($1 = 72.9800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)