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Shares of Oil India hit an over three-year high of Rs 240, up 3 per cent on the BSE in Wednesday’s intra-day trade, in an otherwise weak market. The stock has surged 10 per cent in the past two trading days amid bullish momentum in global natural gas prices. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 0.65 per cent at 59,281 points at 10:02 am.
The stock of the state-owned exploration & production (E&P) company was trading at its highest level since May 2018. In the past one month, it has outperformed the market by soaring 38 per cent as compared to a 5.7 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.
On Tuesday, Brent crude prices hit their highest level since October 2018. Higher crude oil prices boost oil explorers’ average realisation from every barrel of the oil sold.
Oil India is the country’s second largest National ‘Navratna’ E&P Company, in terms of total proved plus probable oil and natural gas reserves. The company became the first Operator to commence seismic data acquisition in Open Acreage Licensing Policy (OALP)-V block (Biswanath district in Assam).
Oil India has been awarded a total of 25 (twenty-five) blocks under OALP Round covering a total area of 48,796 sq. km. These acreages are in the state of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan and offshore areas in Andaman and Kerala-Konkan. “This spreads the domestic E&P acreage significantly with Pan India presence and will help in future growth of the Company through successful exploration efforts. The Company is also taking various other initiatives to boost exploration & development activities and to step up production of oil and gas,” Oil India said.
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Meanwhile, Bharat Petroleum Corporation’s (BPCL’s) upcoming disinvestment and Assam Accord restrictions have made Oil India an unintended beneficiary of Numaligarh Refinery (NRL), according to analysts at Emkay Global Financial Services.
“Although we believe NRL’s acquisition should have been 100 per cent with the Assam government allotted Oil India’s share instead, the effective 69.6 per cent stake is also material. Oil India stands to benefit from NRL’s massive excise duty-driven earnings and its ongoing 3x capacity expansion,” the brokerage firm said in company update.
Separately, the stock of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 144.90, up 2 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade today, and was trading at its highest level since November 2019. In the past one month, the stock has rallied 21 per cent.
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“Recovery in crude oil prices seen from the lows of about $20/bbl during the end of April 2020 to around $80/bbl currently, along with recovery in crude oil demand with the easing of lockdowns globally, is expected to lead to improvement in the financial performance of ONGC. Moreover, the expected increase in domestic natural gas prices in the next revision will also be a positive,” ICRA said in a rating rationale.
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