ONGC reports 6 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd , India's biggest hydrocarbon explorer, reported a 6 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit to 43.40 billion rupees ($673 million) hurt by a one-time provision.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 49.91 billion rupees.

Total income of 262.34 billion rupees was up almost 30 percent on higher crude oil prices.

($1 = 64.4750 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee; editing by Jason Neely)