OIL logs Rs 249 cr loss in Q1 on slump in oil prices

Oil India Ltd, the nation's second largest state oil and gas producer, logged second quarterly loss in its history in April-June after crude oil prices slumped to lower than cost of production.

Oil India Ltd, the nation's second-largest state oil and gas producer, logged second quarterly loss in its history in April-June after crude oil prices slumped to lower than the cost of production. OIL had a net loss of Rs 248.61 crore in the first quarter of 2020-21 fiscal as compared to a net profit of Rs 624.80 crore in the same period of the previous financial year.

"This is the second quarterly loss in OIL history. We had a quarterly loss in 2018-19 fiscal," OIL Director-Finance Harish Madhav said on Saturday. The loss was primarily due to price realized for oil the company produced dropped to USD 30.43 per barrel in the June quarter as compared to USD 66.33 a barrel price realized a year back, he said.

"Our cost of production is around USD 32-33 per barrel and a drop in price was the primary reason for the loss in Q1," he said. OIL produced 0.75 million tonnes of crude oil in April-June, down marginally from 0.81 million tonnes a year back. Natural gas output too was marginally lower at 0.68 billion cubic meters (bcm) from 0.71 bcm in Q1 2019-20.

He said natural gas price realization during Q1 FY21 reduced to USD 2.39 per metric million British thermal units (mmBtu) from USD 3.23 in the previous quarter. OIL's cost of production for natural gas is around USD 2.3 per mmBtu. "Gas price realization was fine but it was the substantial drop in oil prices that resulted in a loss in Q1," he said.

Turnover in April-June reduced to Rs 1,874.48 crore from Rs 3,496.10 crore in the same period last year.