Oil and gas exploration stocks gain; Duke Offshore hits 20% upper circuit

Shares of oil and gas exploration companies rose as much as 20% in intra-day trade on Wednesday as the government decided to offer bigger oil and gas areas currently under PSUs to the private sector.

Shares of oil and gas exploration companies rose as much as 20% in intra-day trade on Wednesday as the government decided to offer bigger oil and gas areas that currently belong to its companies Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India (OIL) to the private sector on relaxed conditions.

“To enhance production from existing nomination fields of ONGC and OIL, enhanced production profile will be prepared by both PSUs. For production enhancement, bringing new technology, and capital, national oil companies will be allowed to induct private sector partners,” said a government press release. Click here to read the report

At 10:50 AM, the shares of Duke Offshore were locked in 20 per cent upper circuit at Rs 25.35 on BSE as the company won a contract from  Daewoo - Tata projects Limited JV. "The company has been awarded a prestigious contract by Daewoo - Tata projects Limited JV to provide one initial high-speed vessel to support construction for the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link project. The contract is for a period of 2 years with an extension option upto 30 months and will start in the month of February 2019", as per the press release of the company. 

Shares of Jindal Drilling & Industries jumped 9.48 per cent higher at Rs 101.60 while Alphageo was trading at Rs 414.20 apiece, up 11.93 per cent. While Hindustan Oil Exploration was trading at Rs 117.50, up 5.05 per cent in the intra-day trade on BSE. Shares of Deep Industries were trading 4.15 per cent higher at Rs 110.30 and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation was trading at Rs 141.25, up 1.62 per cent on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading 0.69 per cent higher at 35,594.