P Elango, MD of Hindustan Oil Exploration Company (HOEC), on Tuesday said that revenues in Q3 were impacted due to lowest ever gas prices.

“In terms of this quarter, we have done extremely well in terms of volume, in terms of cost, and in terms of investment. However, what has hit us is revenue and that is purely related to the lowest gas prices that are prevailing in India today. Gas price at $1.79 per mmbtu is the lowest this country has ever seen and this must be the lowest gas price anywhere in the world,” he said in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

However, he said that they are focusing on their B-80 flagship and are looking to move away from being a gas focused organisation.

“Our focus in the next financial year is to bring our flagship offshore field B-80 in western offshore. We have already drilled two wells. The field has tested production of about 8,000 barrels of oil equivalent. So we would move away from predominantly a gas focused organisation to a good exposure to oil which is about 40 percent to our portfolio. Strengthening oil prices certainly adds to our bottomline and to our topline. Every dollar increase in oil price for B-80, our exposure alone would get us close to Rs 8 crore to our topline,” he said.

He said that B-80 on a full year basis will give a topline of about Rs 300 crore.

“Overall, B-80 on a full year basis would give us topline of about Rs 300 crore and bottomline of about Rs 200 crore. We have other businesses anywhere between Rs 75 and Rs 100 crore coming in. So we are looking at next financial year to achieve a targeted topline of about Rs 300 crore and bottomline of about Rs 200 crore,” he said.

Watch video for more

(Edited by : Aditi Gautam)