ONGC Q3 net down 64% on crude slump, impairment loss

Firm expects natural gas prices to come down by 15% beginning 1 April

State-owned petroleum explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation on Thursday posted a 64-per cent decline in net profit for the December quarter, on the crude oil price slump and provisioning for impairment of assets. Net profit was Rs 1,285 crore  against Rs 3,571 crore.

“Our profit would have been Rs 3,898 crore, had it not been for the provision for impairment of Rs 2,612 crore,” ONGC Chairman and Managing Director D K Sarraf said.

“As a result, Rs 3,994 crore has been provided as impairment loss for the quarter and nine months ended December 2015,” the firm said. Impairment loss refers to a provision in the balance sheet, pertaining to cash flow from assets where the expected future revenue becomes less than, the book value of these assets.

Thanks to the slump in crude price, the oil explorer’s gross realisation dipped to $44.34 per barrel from $75.97 per barrel in the year-ago quarter.

However, with the government having exempted ONGC from sharing the subsidy burden of downstream oil firms in the third quarter, net realisation ($44.34 per barrel) was higher than the net realisation of $35.52 per barrel of the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.

Total income of the company during the quarter ended December 2015 also dipped 5 per cent to Rs 19,359 crore as compared to Rs 20,302 crore posted in the same period last fiscal. The company’s share price at the Bombay Stock Exchange today closed at Rs 202.80, down 5.2 per cent as compared to previous close.

Sarraf also said, based on the trend of gas prices in the global market in the past months, domestic prices of natural gas are expected to come down by around 15 per cent from the existing $4.2 per million british thermal units (mmbtu). “We have not asked the government to freeze the natural gas price at the current level,” Sarraf said, adding the firm has only represented to the oil ministry seeking a revision in the gas price to make projects viable.

ONGC has told the oil ministry it may find approving new projects difficult at the current level of gas price. The explorer is currently preparing to submit a revised Field Development Plan (FDP) for its KG-D5 block based on the inputs received from the upstream regulator.