Oil India Ltd (OIL), the nation’s second largest public sector explorer, reported a 71.88 per cent increase in its net profit for the January-March 2013 quarter.

The rise was because of a lower subsidy outgo compared with the same period last year, the company said in a statement on Saturday.

OIL’s net profit for Q4 FY13 stood at Rs 764.44 crore against Rs 444.81 crore in the same quarter last year.

The explorer sold each barrel of crude oil at $111.44. However, it had to shell out $56 on every barrel as subsidy to compensate oil marketing companies for selling fuel at below market cost. As a result, the net price for every barrel stood at $55.44 in Q4, up from $38.92 a barrel in the previous year quarter. During Q4 FY13, OIL drilled 0.872 million tonnes of crude oil compared with 0.967 million tonnes in the same period last year. Natural gas production stood at 647.703 mmscm (million metric standard cubic metres) compared with 639 mmscm during the previous year period.

OIL attributed the shortfall in crude oil production to environmental problems. Also, nearly 290 incidents of blockades and bandhs affected the explorer’s drilling and production operations.

The public sector company has recommended a final dividend of 70 per cent for 2012-13. This is in addition to its first interim dividend of 110 per cent and second interim dividend of 120 per cent. The total dividend for the complete financial year is 300 per cent.

OIL said that during 2012-13, there had been seven discoveries, including heavy oil strike in Rajasthan.

> siddhartha.s@thehindu.co.in

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW