Oil India posts highest-ever quarterly profit in Q4

Oil India announces 1:2 bonus share

New Delhi: State-owned Oil India (OIL) on Monday reported its highest-ever quarterly net profit in three months to March 31, helped by higher oil production and better prices.

Standalone net profit of Rs2,028.33 crore in January-March was 13.45 per cent higher than the earnings in the same period of last year, the company, in a statement, said, adding this was “the highest ever (quarterly) profit after tax”.

On a consolidated basis, after taking into account earnings of Numaligarh Refineries Ltd, its net profit was up 18 per cent to Rs2,332.94 crore in January-March — the fourth quarter of 2023-24, according to a stock exchange filing by the nation’s second-biggest state-owned oil and gas producer.

Oil production was up 6 per cent year-on-year.

Higher oil prices led to a 16 per cent rise in turnover to Rs10,375.09 crore.

Earnings from crude oil produced and sold rose 18 per cent but the same from gas dropped 16.5 per cent on lower prices.

For the full 2023-24 fiscal (April 2023 to March 2024), its consolidated net profit fell 29 per cent to Rs6,980.45 crore. On a standalone basis, a net profit of Rs5,551.85 crore for FY2023-24 was lower than Rs6,810.40 crore of the previous year.

The fall in annual profit was “due to the provisions made for statutory compliances,” OIL said in the statement.

For the full fiscal, crude oil production was up 5.7 per cent to 3.17 million tonnes, while natural gas output rose 3.21 per cent to reach a record 3.182 billion cubic metres.

“Further, the company drilled a record-breaking 61 wells during FY23-24, which surpassed all its previous records since inception,” it said.

OIL said its board approved issuing a 1:2 bonus issue (one free share for every two held).

It also approved a final dividend of Rs3.75 per equity share of Rs10 each (pre-bonus), which translates into a final dividend of Rs2.50 per share (post-bonus) for 2023-24.

The final dividend is in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 3.50 (pre-bonus) and the second interim dividend of Rs 8.50 (pre-bonus) paid for the fiscal.