Cairn India profit declines 14 pc on foreign-exchange loss

Cairn India today reported a 14 per cent drop in its December quarter net profit after record revenue from highest ever production was negated by a foreign-exchange loss.
Profit in October-December fell to Rs 2,884 crore, or Rs 16.9 a share, from Rs 3,345 crore, or Rs 15.9 per share, a year earlier, Cairn said in a press statement here.
Revenue rose 17 per cent to Rs 5,000 crore as output touched a record 224,493 barrels of oil and oil-equivalent gas a day.
Cairn's showpiece Rajasthan fields produced 184,982 barrels of oil per day in the quarter and output may rise to 200,000 bpd at the end of the financial year as it puts satellite fields on production.

The dip in profit was "primarily due to a foreign-exchange loss on the dollar deposits with the strengthening of the rupee to US dollar," it said.
Also, the government's share of profit from the Rajasthan fields went up to 30 per cent from 20 per cent.

Cairn had cash of Rs 13,000 crore at the end of December and another USD 1.45 billion in dollar funds, part of which will be used for a Rs 5,725 crore share buyback that opened today.
The company announced two more oil discoveries in the prolific Rajasthan block, taking the total in the Barmer district block to 28.

"Since the resumption of exploration in March 2013, nine exploration and appraisal wells have been drilled until Q3 FY14 and the initial results have been encouraging with three discoveries and a success ratio of over 50 per cent," the statement said, adding that the finds have added an estimated 500-600 million barrels of in-place oil resources.
Cairn said it contributed Rs 6,400 crore to the central and state governments in taxes and royalties in Q3 and Rs 18,800 crore in the first nine months of this financial year.
Besides, the Nagayalanka oil discovery in the onland block in the Krishna Godavari basin is expected to add 10,000 bpd of output by 2017.

"Cairn remains committed to discover new resources and deliver accelerated value from its assets. Our focus on execution is yielding results," Cairn India CEO P. Elango said.
The renewed exploration and appraisal programme during 2013 resulted in three discoveries in Rajasthan and declaration of commerciality of Nagayalanka discovery in KG-Onshore block, he said.
"Our strategy of active exploration across the portfolio opens up potential for resource accretion in the near term. We are keen on evaluating the blocks in NELP-X announced by Oil Ministry recently, to build on our exploration-led growth in India," he added.