MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - State explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp
ONGC, India's second-biggest company by market value, reported net profit of 33.89 billion rupees for the fourth quarter ended March, down from 56.44 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts on average had expected the company to post a net profit of 47.08 billion rupees for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine data. Net sales rose 14 percent to 213.89 billion rupees.
The company produces most of its output from aging fields in western India and has been trying to boost capital spending in recent years to maintain output. It is also aiming to produce gas from its east coast blocks by 2016/17.
Exploration-related write-offs during the quarter, on account of dry wells, jumped by a third to 47.40 billion rupees. Depreciation and depletion costs also nearly doubled to 23.9 billion, ONGC said.
ONGC has outlined plans for capital expenditure of 350 billion rupees in the current fiscal year from April 1, up from 295 billion the previous year.
The cost of subsidy eased slightly to 123 billion rupees from 142 billion a year earlier. As a result, the amount ONGC gets paid per barrel of crude rose to $50.85 per barrel from $44.32 a barrel a year ago.
ONGC does not fully benefit from high crude prices because India caps prices of diesel, cooking gas and kerosene, and producers such as ONGC share the cost of subsidising state refineries by selling crude to them at a discount.
The company is in talks with Shell
Recent reports have said ONGC may sell a stake in some of its deep water blocks in India to Shell.
Shares in the company closed marginally higher ahead of the results. The stock has risen nearly a quarter so far in 2013, outpacing a 5 percent rise in the sectoral index.
($1 = 55.93 rupees)
