Aug 4 (Reuters) – Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India’s state-run explorer, on Tuesday reported a first-quarter profit that more than doubled, helped by higher crude price realisations.
• The standalone profit, which excludes earnings from joint ventures and overseas operations, rose to 170.34 billion rupees ($1.79 billion) for the quarter ended June 30, from 80.24 billion rupees a year earlier.
• Analysts expected upstream oil companies such as ONGC to benefit from a weakened rupee and surging crude prices, as the Middle East conflict disrupted supply, pushed the market into deficit, and supported stronger realisations.
• Average global Brent crude prices rose about 45% year-on-year in the first quarter.
• ONGC’s crude oil price realisation rose 50.4% to $99.45 per barrel, from $66.13 per barrel a year ago.
• The company’s net profit margin improved to 36.66% from 25.07% a year ago.
• ONGC’s revenue from operations rose 45.2% to 464.60 billion rupees in the quarter, despite a narrow 3.4% drop in production.
• Total expenses rose 13.4% to 254.74 billion rupees.
($1 = 95.3775 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Anuran Sadhu in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)
