The rise in profits was primarily due to the record high crude oil prices which pushed up the company's overall average price realisation from each barrel of crude oil to $100.01 during the quarter ($61.04 per barrel). Realisation from gas sales also increased marginally to $4.08 per million cubic feet (mcf) from $4.07 per mcf in the first quarter of 2007.
Revenues also rose 33.59 per cent at Rs 315.8 crore (Rs 236.4 crore) during the quarter.
The company's share price on the Bombay Stock Exchange advanced marginally on a day the benchmark Sensex rose by over 2 per cent.
Cairn and its subsidiaries also spent 25.93 per cent less in the quarter at Rs 170.47 crore (Rs 230.15 crore). The company's exploration costs fell 63.1 per cent to Rs 17.49 crore during the year from Rs 47.4 crore in the year-ago period. Employee costs also fell to Rs 25.21 crore (Rs 30.85 crore).
On standalone basis, the company recorded a net loss of Rs 8.74 crore in the first quarter from Rs 8.54 crore loss in the comparable previous period. Total revenue also fell to Rs 7.09 crore from Rs 12.60 crore.
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Cairn, a subsidiary of UK-based Cairn Energy, gets its revenues from the fee it gets for being the operator in a few oil blocks in India.
Although Cairn's Rajasthan block is yet to begin production, it still earned Rs 0.89 crore as operating income and Rs 6.19 crore as interest income from the money it raised through its initial public offering in late 2006.
Cairn, which is set to begin production of crude oil from its Rajasthan field in the second half of 2009, recently increased the peak oil production level from the field to 175,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 150,000 bpd. This is nearly 26 per cent of the crude oil currently being produced from the country's oil fields.