Cairn India's first quarter net profit drops 28%

Oil explorer Cairn India Ltd, controlled by billionaire Anil Agarwal, said on Thursday consolidated net profit in the first quarter of its business year fell 28% from the same period a year ago due to lower crude oil prices.

The crude oil and gas producer, with assets in Rajasthan state's Barmer basin, Andhra Pradesh's Ravva basin and Gujarat's Cambay basin, reported April-June profit of 3.6 billion rupees ($53.61 million). Sales fell 28% to 18.85 billion rupees.

The first-quarter's performance represented a significant improvement on the previous quarter however, when Cairn India reported a loss of 5.6 billion rupees. The improvement was due to a recovery in prices in April-June, when the Brent crude oil price averaged $47.03 a barrel.

Earlier in the day, Navin Agarwal, chairman of the company, informed shareholders in its annual general meeting that the company plans to quadruple its natural gas output from the Rajasthan field in the next 18 to 24 months.

The company also hopes to complete the process of the merger with parent company Vedanta Ltd by the end of March 2017.