Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) delivered a quarter of sharp contrasts. Standalone net profit more than doubled year-on-year to ₹17,034 crore in Q1 FY27, driven by the highest-ever quarterly profit before tax of ₹22,848 crore and a 45.2% jump in gross revenue to ₹46,460 crore. At the consolidated level, however, profit attributable to owners rose a more modest 21.4% to ₹11,899 crore, while reported consolidated net profit fell 43.3% to ₹6,554 crore after HPCL booked a ₹12,265 crore loss on petroleum product under-recoveries.
The standalone beat was almost entirely price-led. Net crude realisation from nominated fields surged 50.4% to US$99.45 per barrel from US$66.13 a year earlier, while new-well gas fetched US$13.31 per mmbtu, up 61.5%. That premium gas stream contributed ₹3,998 crore of revenue, adding ₹1,897 crore over the administered price mechanism and now accounts for roughly 38% of nomination gas revenue. Operational EBITDA more than doubled sequentially to ₹28,355 crore, pushing the operating margin to 61% from 35.3% in the March quarter.
Production volumes told a different story. Standalone crude output slipped to 4.452 million metric tonnes from 4.683 MMT in Q1 FY26, and JV production fell to 0.262 MMT from 0.306 MMT. The company attributed the dip to reservoir complexities in the KG-DWN-98/2 block, rough sea conditions in the Western Offshore, pipeline replacement delays, and temporary well shutdowns during project commissioning.