New Delhi, Jun 25 (IANS): Country's largest public sector oil and gas explorer ONGC has reported 309.5 per cent jump in its net profit in Q4 FY21 largely on account of higher revenue backed by higher oil prices and an exceptional item.

The company's net profit for January-March quarter stood at Rs 6,734 crore as against net loss of Rs 3,214 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

The gross revenue of the company, however, fell by 1.2 per cent to Rs 21,189 crore as compared to gross revenue of Rs 21,456 crore in the previous year.

For the full fiscal year 2020-21, ONGC's net profit declined by 16.5 per cent, from Rs 13,464 crore in FY 20 to Rs 11,246 crore in FY 21.

The state-run company also reported its gross revenue of Rs 68,141 crore in FY 21, a 29.2 per cent decline from the level of Rs 96,214 crore in the previous fiscal.

The company's Board recommended final dividend of 37 per cent (Rs 1.85 per share) for FY21. It had earlier declared interim dividend of 35 per cent (Rs 1.75 per share) during the year. Thus, the total dividend for FY 21 has been 72 per cent (Rs 3.60 per share). The total dividend payout for FY'21 would be Rs 4,529 crore, the company stated.

Meanwhile, the ONGC has declared total 10 discoveries (3 in onland, 7 in offshore) during FY 2020-21 in its operated acreages. Out of these, 6 are prospects (1 in onland, 5 in offshore) and 4 are pools (2 in onland, 2 in offshore).

With the monetization of Ashoknagar-1 discovery, the Bengal basin became the eighth sedimentary basin of India from which hydrocarbon has commercially been produced, the company stated.

Despite countrywide lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic, ONGC has almost reached last year's production levels in case of crude oil from its operated blocks. The shortfall in Natural Gas production is primarily due to less offtake by customers due to Covid-19 pandemic. This has resulted in production shortfall of Condensate and Value Added Products (VAP) as well, the company stated.