ONGC Videsh H1 profit rises 14% to Rs 1,886 crore

ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), today reported a 14.4% increase in net profit in the first half of the financial year on higher crude oil and gas output.

Profit in the April-September period rose to Rs 1,886 crore from Rs 1,649 crore, the company said in a statement here. OVL is unlisted and does not release quarterly earnings.

Crude oil production rose 19% to 2.707 million tons while gas output was up 16.34% to 1.41 billion cubic meters in H1.

Revenue climbed 22.5% to Rs 10,060 crore.

OVL has 32 projects in 16 countries, of which 12 are in production, while hydrocarbon discoveries have been made in four. Of the remaining, 14 are in exploration stage and two are pipeline projects.

It said production from assets in Syria continued to be affected due to the geo-political situation, including EU sanctions against that country.

Natural gas production from the A3 offshore block in Myanmar started in July and the field currently produces 4.6 million standard cubic meters of gas a day.

"Production is expected to reach 5.67 mmscmd in December 2013 and will reach peak level of 14.50 mmscmd in Q1 of 2015," the statement said. OVL has a 17% share in the fields.

The company is targeting 20 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas production from its overseas projects by 2018 and 60 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas by 2030.

It had produced 7.26 million tons of oil and oil equivalent gas in 2012-13.

During the current financial year, OVL raised its stake in the producing BC-10 block in Brazil to 27% from 15% at a cost of $529 million.

It was awarded two onshore exploratory blocks -- B-2 (Zebyutaung-Nandaw) and EP-3 (Thegon-Shwegu) in Myanmar.

Block B-2, with an area of 16,995 sq kms, is located in Northern Myanmar, bordering the state of Manipur in India, and Block EP-3, covering 1,650 sq kms, is located in Central Myanmar, the statement said.

OVL also won exploratory blocks SS09 and SS04 in the Bangladesh Offshore Bidding Round 2012.