(DNA)
State-owned ONGC on Thursday reported its highest quarterly net profit in over four-and-a-half-years on sharp rise in prices for oil and gas it produced. Its net profit of Rs 6,143.88 crore in the first quarter of the 2018-19 fiscal was 58.1% higher than Rs 3,884.73 crore in the year-ago period, Oil and Natural Gas Corp said in a statement here.The net profit is highest since December 2013 when earnings had hit Rs 7,126 crore. ONGC realised USD 71.48 for every barrel of crude oil it produced in the April-June quarter of the current fiscal, up 47.6% over USD 48.42 a barrel in the year-ago period.
For natural gas, it got USD 3.06 per million British thermal unit as compared to USD 2.48 per mmBtu. ONGC said its crude oil production dropped 5.3% to 5 million tonnes in the quarter. This was partly made up by a 2.5% rise in output from joint venture fields, that pumped 0.8 million tonnes oil. Natural gas production was however 3.4% higher at 5.9 billion cubic metres.
