Indian state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the biggest oil and gas explorer and producer in the country, booked a 17.8% decline in its net profit for the July-September quarter compared to a year earlier as lower oil prices dented crude realizations.
ONGC reported $1.11 billion (98.5 billion Indian rupees) in standalone net profit for the second quarter of its 2025/2026 fiscal year, down by 17.8% from the same period of the previous fiscal year, but higher than the $906 million (80.24 billion rupees) net profit for the first quarter of its financial year.
Standalone gross revenues declined by 2.5% in the July-September 2025 quarter from a year earlier and by 5.9% in the six months between April and September.
For July to September, ONGC’s crude realizations averaged $67.34 per barrel, down from $78.33 per barrel for the same quarter last year.
Between April and September this year, ONGC made two new oil and gas discoveries, Vajramani and MBS202HAA-1, the company said. It also drilled eight exploratory wells across the Andaman Offshore, Bengal, Kutch, Narmada, and South Rewa Basins.
As an Indian public sector enterprise, “ONGC remains committed to sustainable growth, energy security and value creation for the nation,” the company said.
Earlier this year, ONGC launched a campaign to boost oil and gas production through well optimization and accelerate the start of production at recently made discoveries.
ONGC produces some 70% of India’s crude oil and 84% of its natural gas. However, the company has witnessed a gradual decline in both oil and gas production due to natural depletion, which it wants to reverse in order to boost self-sufficiency in hydrocarbons.
India’s domestic oil and gas production is nowhere near enough to meet even half of its demand for oil and gas, but any boost to domestic supply would be welcome as a replacement for import dependence, which currently stands at a whopping 85% of total demand for oil.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
