Oil & Natural Gas Corp.’s second-quarter profit fell 11 percent as slumping crude prices eroded revenue at India’s biggest energy explorer.
Net income fell to 48.4 billion rupees ($736 million) in the three months ended Sept. 30 from 54.4 billion rupees a year earlier, the state-owned company said in a statement Friday. The average of 25 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg survey was 46.6 billion rupees. Sales gained 1 percent to 205.6 billion rupees.
Flagging output from aging wells at home has spurred New Delhi-based ONGC to look for acquisitions and new reserves overseas. While crude’s slump has led to a rise in assets on offer globally, a decline in earnings is making it tougher for the explorer to fund about 11 trillion rupees of planned projects, including the purchase of a 15 percent stake in a Russian oilfield belonging to OAO Rosneft.
ONGC shares gained 0.3 percent to 251.45 rupees at the close in Mumbai. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.2 percent. The earnings were reported after trading ended.
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