Oil India June qtr net down 32.25% to Rs 501.11 cr

NEW DELHI: State-owned Oil India Ltd today reported a 32.25 per cent drop in its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 as it was forced to produce less due a shutdown at its principal buyer.

Net profit fell to Rs 501.11 crore in April-June this year as against Rs 739.69 crore profit in the same quarter previous fiscal, OIL Chairman and Managing Director N M Borah told reporters here.

Crude oil output fell 9.5 per cent to 0.798 million tonnes as Numaligarh Refinery extended maintenance shutdown for 100 days.

Also, natural gas output was down 8.6 per cent to 0.553 billion cubic meters, he said.

"We are hopeful of recouping the lost production in the remaining part of the fiscal through accelerated production," he said, adding output would have risen by 5 per cent over 0.882 million tonnes of Q1 last year if NRL shutdown would not have extended.

The net profit also fell because of rise in OIL's fuel subsidy outgo to Rs 729.66 crore as against Rs 57.61 crore in April-June 2009-10 fiscal, OIL Director (Finance) TK Ananthkumar said.

Upstream companies ONGC, OIL and GAIL India are meeting one-third of the over Rs 20,000 crore revenue fuel retailers lost on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost.

"The net price realisation (on crude oil sold) was down USD 10.73 per barrel to USD 49.68 a barrel," he said.

Total operating income declined to Rs 1,574.15 crore in the April-June quarter from Rs 1,974.61 crore in the same period last year.

Shares of Oil India Ltd today closed at Rs 1,343.25 per piece on the BSE, up 0.53 per cent from previous close.

Borah said the recent government decision to more than double natural gas price to USD 4.20 per million British thermal unit will add Rs 538 crore to OIL topline and Rs 350 crore to the bottomline in full year.