A technician is pictured inside a desalter plant of Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on the outskirts of Ahmedabad. (Photo: File/Reuters)
NEW DELHI: State-owned oil sector giant ONGC on Thursday reported its highest quarterly net profit in over four-and-a-half-years, boosted by a sharp rise in prices for oil and gas.
According to the firm, net profit for the quarter ended June 30, 2018, stood at Rs 6,143.88 crore against Rs 3,884.73 crore a year ago, up 58 per cent. This is the highest profit recorded by the firm since December 2013, when earnings had hit Rs 7,126 crore. ONGC’s revenue from operations have also risen sharply by 42.7 per cent to Rs 27,212.83 crore.
During the period, ONGC realised $71.48 for every barrel of crude oil it produced, up 47.6 per cent over $48.42 a barrel a year ago. For natural gas, it got $3.06 per million British thermal unit compared to $2.48 per mmBtu a year ago
However, ONGC said its crude oil production during the period actually dropped 5.3 per cent to 5 million tonnes.
Analysts on average had expected ONGC to post a standalone profit of 66.43 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters.
India had raised prices of its locally produced gas by about 6 percent for April-September to $3.06 per million British thermal units (mBtu) compared to $2.89/mBtu in the previous six months.
Revenue from offshore operations rose 38 percent to 180.66 billion rupees in the quarter while total expenses went up 30 percent to 182.56 billion rupees.
(with Reuters input)
