Cairn Q2 Net jumps 46% to Rs 3,385.08 crore

Profits were up as the company produced a record 213,229 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas

Cairn India today reported a 46% jump in its September quarter profit on the back of record oil and gas production and high oil prices.

Net profit in July-September at Rs 3,385.08 crore, or Rs 17.72 per share, was 46% higher than Rs 2,322.18 crore, or Rs 12.17 a share, in the same period a year ago, the company said in a statement here.

The profits were up as Cairn produced a record 213,229 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas from its three primary oil and gas fields - Rajasthan, Ravva off the east coast and Cambay off the west coast.

The firm had produced 207,245 barrels in July-September 2012 and 212,442 barrels in April-June quarter of current fiscal.

Also, the price realised was $2 higher at $95.3 per barrel in the second quarter of current fiscal.

Revenue was up 5% at Rs 4,650 crore in the second quarter.

Cairn said it was on track to achieving the year-end target of 225,000 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas per day. Of this, over 200,000 bpd will come from Rajasthan oilfields, which in second quarter produced 175,478 barrels of oil and oil equivalent gas.

The company had started with production of 3,000 barrels in 1994 from Ravva fields off the Andhra coast and in less than two decades production has risen several times.

Cairn contributed $1 billion in royalty, sales tax and profit petroleum to Central and state governments during second quarter -- the highest ever. Of this, over 40% would have flowed to the Central exchequer as the government's share of profit from oil and gas Cairn produced.

Since winning approval to drill exploratory or probe wells in an already producing field in June this year, the company has drilled 6 wells on the Rajasthan fields, four of which have yielded hydrocarbon discoveries.

Of the four, "a declaration of potential commerciality for the Raageshwari S-1 discovery in has been submitted," the statement said.

The company plans to drill a total of 100 well on Rajasthan block over the next three years.

Cairn India chief executive and director P Elango said, "We are focused on enhancing the recovery efficiency from our producing fields through the use of cutting edge enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. We have also been extremely active with the drill bit as we continue to aggressively develop our world class resource base."

The recently announced policy on the Integrated Development Plan will help the cut the lead time in bringing discoveries to production by half to 18-24 months.

The company also said it has made a formal application for an extension of the licence for Rajasthan and Ravva blocks beyond 2019.

The committee constituted by the Oil ministry to "look into the production sharing contract (PSC) extension is expected to submit its report shortly," it said.