ONGC third-quarter profit rises, but misses expectations

(Reuters) - India's top explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corp Ltd reported a 15 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Friday, but missed analysts' expectations.

Standalone net profit rose to 50.15 billion rupees ($778.6 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from 43.52 billion rupees a year earlier, the state-run company said in a statement. http://bit.ly/2H2Oa2W

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 61.46 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue from its offshore segment was up 14 percent to 159.21 billion rupees.

($1 = 64.4100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Amrutha Gayathri)