ONGC looks overseas to help increase oil production

The Indian state-run player is looking overseas to diversify its production base, while acting to tackle problems at home. NJ Watson weighs up whether the company is doing enough

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation's (ONGC) latest financial results highlight the Indian state-run firm's two main challenges: domestic oil subsidies and the rising investment required to reverse a long-term decline in oil production. ONGC beat forecasts for the quarter ended December following the Indian government's decision in January to raise the prices of subsidised diesel in order to cut the fiscal deficit Its net profit for the October-December quarter was  55.63 billion rupees ($1.04bn), down 17.5% due to a one-off gain in the year-earlier period, but higher than the 53.7bn rupees net profit expected by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters Starmine. However, gains were limited because