The October-December 2012 quarter saw Cairn India operating a daily gross production of over 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent (oil and gas both) from its three assets — Barmer (Rajasthan), Ravva (East Coast), and Cambay fields.
This has resulted in reducing India’s dependence on crude oil imports by almost $1.7 billion and has contributed almost $0.9 billion to the national exchequer, said P. Elango, Interim Chief Executive Officer.
The company’s (consolidated) net profit saw a 48 per cent increase at Rs 3,344.9 crore in the October-December 2012 period. Cairn’s consolidated revenue was up 38 per cent to Rs 4,277.6 crore. The revenue for the quarter is post-profit sharing with the Government and the Rajasthan block royalty expense, Elango said.
“In addition to Rajasthan, we are focused on exploration across our asset portfolio, both in India and core areas internationally,” he added.
Rajasthan block
With the recent Government decision to allow exploration activity within an area that has been delineated after discoveries of hydrocarbons for production, the management committee of Cairn’s Rajasthan block (RJ-ON-90/1) has requested the joint venture – ONGC and Cairn – to submit an exploration work programme.
The target is to drill the first exploration well by end of 2012-13, Elango said. The Rajasthan block is producing 175,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd). Efforts are on to harness the block’s full potential and target production of 300,000 bopd equivalent to a contribution of over 35 per cent of India’s total domestic current crude production.
The profit petroleum of the Rajasthan block (net to the company) was Rs 720 crore during the quarter. The gross cumulative Rajasthan development capital expenditure, as on December 31, 2012, was $ 3.7 billion, of which $ 99 million was spent during the quarter.
Sales contract
The joint venture is in the process of renewing the Rajasthan crude sales contract for 2013-14 with the existing PSU and private buyers (IOC, Reliance, Essar). The crude is benchmarked to Bonny Light, West African low sulphur crude that is frequently traded in the region, with appropriate adjustments for crude quality. The crude is sold 10-15 per cent discount to Brent.
The average price realisation on crude oil sales during the quarter was $96.2 a barrel, down 5 per cent from the same quarter last fiscal because of the variations in discount.
CEO appointment
Meanwhile, confusion continued over Elango’s appointment as a regular CEO. Elango was appointed as interim CEO in August 2012 after Rahul Dhir’s exit. The board appointed Elango as a whole-time director of the company on Monday, the company statement said, adding that “the search for the Cairn India CEO is ongoing and progressing well.”
richa.mishra@thehindu.co.in