Posts profit at Rs 7,083 crore in the third quarter, up 132 per cent from Rs 3,054 crore last year.
Riding on receipts of gas sale dues and better crude realisation, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), the country’s biggest energy explorer, on Friday reported an over two-fold jump in net profit for the quarter ended December 31. Net profit for the quarter was a record Rs 7,083 crore, up 132 per cent from Rs 3,054 crore in the corresponding period last year. Sales revenue for the quarter was Rs 18,648 crore, up 21.4 per cent from the year-ago period.
The company has received Rs 1,898 crore as one-time settlement of natural gas dues on the contributions it made to the gas pool account. The account, to which ONGC contributed funds, was set up in the 1990s for selling gas at subsidised prices to key industrial sectors.
The company paid Rs 4,222 crore towards fuel subsidy in the quarter, up 20.73 per cent compared to Rs 3,497 crore last year. Upstream companies such as ONGC, Oil India and GAIL (India) have to provide discounts on crude oil and product sales to public sector oil marketing companies under the government’s mechanism to compensate the retailers for selling auto and cooking fuels below the market price. The company’s net realisation on crude sale after discounts was $64.79 per barrel, up 12.3 per cent from $57.69 per barrel a year ago.
During the quarter, the company notified five discoveries to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. Two discoveries are in the western offshore, one each in the Mahanadi offshore, western onshore and Cauvery onland. The Mahanadi basin offshore block MN—OSN—2000/2, won in New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) round, flowed up to 3.26 million standard cubic metres per day of gas during the tests.