Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today reported a 68 per cent jump in net profit for 2002-03 at Rs 10,436 crore.
Turnover increased 50 per cent to Rs 35,820.98 crore during the financial year from Rs 23,857.40 crore last year.
After adjusting losses in Mangalore Refineries Petrochemicals (MRPL), net profit of the ONGC group stands at Rs 10,282 crore. The turnover of the group crossed Rs 40,000 crore, an ONGC statement said.
MRPL was taken over by ONGC through the acquisition of 37.4 per cent equity from the Aditya Birla group followed by debt restructuring, with a total investment of Rs 660 crore. With 51 per cent equity being held by ONGC, MRPL is now a member of the ONGC group as a subsidiary company.
The company attributed the growth in turnover to the highest ever production of natural gas as well as the deregulation of crude and product prices.
ONGC, which was being paid at the cap price of 16 dollars per barrel in the administered pricing era, benefited from the upwardly mobile international prices. Crude production for the year increased 5 per cent to 26 million tonne.
For 2002-2003, the company has already declared an interim dividend of 170 per cent, of which Government of India got Rs 2,038.88 crore.
In the next financial year, ONGC is looking forward to the deregulation of natural gas prices and plans to launch retail marketing of transportation fuels in addition to further upsides in exploration, production and refining, the company release said.
ONGC made six new discoveries, at Vasai west (oil and gas) in western offshore, GS-49 (gas) and GS-KW (oil and gas) in Krishna Godavari offshore, Chinnewala Tibba (gas) in Rajasthan, Laipling-gaon (oil and gas) and Banamali (oil), both in Assam.
The company said, preliminary estimates indicate 240 million barrels of in-place oil plus oil-equivalent gas at Vasai west and 100 million barrels at Laipling-gaon.
