India's largest private firm Reliance Industries reported on October 15 that net profit fell for a fourth straight financial quarter, hit by declining gas output from offshore fields.
The energy giant, controlled by India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, said net profit for the financial second quarter slid 5.7 percent to 53.7 billion rupees ($1.01 billion) from 57.03 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.
Turnover fell 1.7 percent to 932 billion rupees for the quarter. The earnings were marginally below analysts' expectations of a 53.9-billion-rupee profit.
"Reliance's business and financial performance for the first half of fiscal year 2012-13 has been satisfactory despite weakness in global economies," said Ambani in a statement.
In the first half of the fiscal year from April to September, crude oil production from Reliance's main oilfield KG-D6 slid 37 percent year-on-year to 1.7 million barrels of crude oil, a company statement said.
Natural gas production tumbled 35 percent to 197 billion cubic feet, over levels a year earlier. "This reduction was due to reservoir complexity and natural decline," the company said.
Last year British energy giant BP paid $7.2 billion to acquire a 30 percent stake in 21 of Reliance's oil and gas fields. Reliance hopes that BP's deepwater drilling expertise will give the Indian giant the skills to develop hard-to-exploit reserves and find more oil.
In the quarter, Reliance's gross refining margins slid to $9.5 a barrel compared with $10.1 a year earlier.
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