BENGALURU (Reuters) – Oil India Ltd beat fourth-quarter profit estimates on Wednesday, benefiting from higher gas prices as a recovery in the country’s economy from the pandemic-induced slump stokes energy demand.
The Indian government has also slashed windfall taxes on petroleum crude, providing relief to energy companies.
Oil India’s profit rose 9.71% to 17.88 billion rupees($218.64 million) from a year earlier, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 17.21 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Profit before tax and interest from the natural gas segment for the March quarter jumped to 8.24 billion rupees from 767.1 million rupees a year ago.
India had raised prices of locally produced gas between October 2022 and March 2023 to a record $8.57 per million metric British thermal units.
Old fields operated by Oil and Natural Gas Corp and Oil India Ltd account for about 80% of India’s annual gas output of about 91 billion cubic metres.
Oil India reported a pre-tax profit from its pipeline transportation unit of 1.16 billion rupees, compared to a loss of 595.3 million rupees a year ago.
The company also reported revenue from operations rose 26% to 56.50 billion rupees.
($1 = 81.7800 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sethuraman NR and Kashish Tandon; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)