State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) today reported 15 per cent rise in the December quarter net profit as higher prices made up for fall in output.

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The net profit in the October-December quarter of the current fiscal, at Rs 5,014.67 crore, was 15.2 per cent higher than Rs 4,352.33 crore in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement.

ONGC got USD 60.58 for every barrel of crude oil it produced during the quarter as compared to USD 51.80 it realised in the year-ago period.

Also, gas price it got was higher at USD 2.89 per million British thermal unit as against USD 2.5 per mmBtu in third quarter of 2016-17.

Crude oil production dropped 1 per cent to 5.2 million tonnes while gas output rose 4.5 per cent at about 6 billion cubic meters.

ONGC's total income rose 15 per cent to Rs 24,122.42 crore during the third quarter of 2017-18.

The company, which last month completed acquisition of government's 51.11 per cent stake in Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) for Rs 36,915 crore, deferred a decision on payment of a second interim dividend to the next meeting of the board.

ONGC said it made as many as 10 oil and gas discoveries so far in the 2017-18 fiscal.

Among the latest discoveries is an oil find in Cauvery basin where a well on the L-II PML Block struck two oil bearing zones.

"The success in this well has helped in establishing the Nannilam Play (sand) to be of commercial interests at a very shallow depth for further exploration in addition to the known Basement play in the Mattur-Pundi area and declared as a new prospect discovery," the statement said.

Commercial oil and gas flow in the well would facilitate the conversion of the 7-year mining lease for the block into long term/regular mining lease, it added.

 

(This article has not been edited by Zeebiz editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)