Cairn India has reported an 18 per cent decline in net profit at Rs.3,127 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2013, as compared to Rs.3,826 crore in the same period last year. The Vedanta group company reported an 8 per cent decline in revenue at Rs.4,063 crore against Rs.4,440 crore.
But the company said it had bettered its performance as compared to the previous quarter with 22 per cent rise in profit despite a 7 per cent decline in revenue.
“We continue to generate substantial cash flow from one of the lowest cost producing assets in the world. We remain focussed on driving production growth from our core Rajasthan asset and delivering positive results from our extensive exploration and appraisal programme,” Elango P, whole-time Director, Cairn India, said.
During the quarter, under the Rajasthan block production sharing contract (PSC), the profit petroleum pay-out to the government rose from 20 per cent to 30 per cent in the Development Area 1 (DA1) and the company paid an additional Rs.326 crore, it said.
Earlier, addressing shareholders at the company’s 7th annual meeting here on Wednesday, Chairman Navin Agarwal said the company would invest Rs.16,000 crore ($3 billion) over the next three years in India in pursuit of finding and producing more oil.
“This will be funded by our strong production base and harnessed by the on-going application of innovative technologies,” Mr. Agarwal, the younger brother of Vedanta group Chairman Anil Agarwal said.
“In Rajasthan, as an example, we will invest more than Rs.13,000 crore ($2.4 billion) and drill more than 450 wells — about 100 exploration wells and more than 350 development wells,” he said.
Cairn India’s shares closed with a loss of 0.63 per cent at Rs.307.85 on the BSE on a day when the benchmark index Sensex closed with a loss of 1.04 per cent or 211 points at 20091.
