For the second year in a row, Cairn India has been ranked as India’s fastest growing company in BW Businessworld’s middleweight category (revenues in the range of Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 9,999 crore) for FY14-15. Also, it has been the fastest growing oil and gas explorer globally over the past three years.
For FY15, Cairn India clocked a revenue of $2.4 billion on the back of 37 discoveries, so far, in its Rajasthan block located near Barmer. It achieved 2,11,671 average daily gross operated production in the financial year 2015. As of 31 March 2015, the company’s gross proved and probable reserves and resource base stood at 1.4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Through its affiliates, Cairn India has been operating for close to two decades in India, playing an active role in developing the country’s oil and gas resource.
In FY2015, the Cairn India operations reduced the country’s crude oil import bill by over $6 billion. Cairn India operates the Rajasthan block that accounted for around 23 per cent of India’s domestic crude production in FY2015; over the years, its output has considerably reduced India’s crude oil import bill. In FY2015, the Rajasthan block contributed Rs 14,869 crore to the national and state exchequers.
“Cairn India’s revenue for FY14-15 was Rs 14,646 crore ($2.4 billion), 22 per cent lower compared to the last financial year primarily as a result of low oil prices. Profit after tax (PAT), excluding exceptional items, was Rs 6,541 crore ($1.1 billion), translating into a strong normalised PAT margin of 45 per cent,” says Mayank Ashar, who joined the company as its managing director and CEO in November 2014.
According to Ashar, the company had an operationally strong year supported by the sustained exceptional performance of its core Rajasthan fields and mature offshore assets. “The Mangala and Aishwariya fields continued to outperform expectations and we prioritised development of our existing resources to ensure we remain well positioned to endure this phase of price volatility,” he says.
The company’s cash flow of Rs 8,765 crore over the year added further to the strength of its balance sheet in the financial year 2015. Its year-end cash balance stood at Rs 16,867 crore. “In demonstrating our commitment to shareholders, the board of director’s recommended a total dividend of Rs 9 per share for FY15, which corresponds to a total payout of 44.57 per cent of Cairn India’s consolidated PAT for the year inclusive of dividend distribution tax,” says Ashar.
As per the company, its Rajasthan block has achieved a cumulative total production of 281 million barrels of oil equivalent (Mmboe) till the end of FY2015 — thus comfortably crossing the 250 mmboe mark. During the last financial year, some 132 wells were brought online, the company said in its latest annual report.
Overall operating expense in Rajasthan continued to be best in class — at $5.8 per barrel, which is one of the lowest in the world, it said. In FY15, Cairn India delivered the largest exploration and appraisal program in the company’s history where 12 exploration and 22 appraisal wells were drilled during the year. Of the 12 exploration wells, nine showed hydrocarbons, it said.
ashish.sinha@businessworld.in; @ashish_bw
BW Reporters
Ashish Sinha is an experienced business journalist who has covered FMCG, auto, infrastructure, tourism, telecom among several other beats. Ashish has keen interest in the regulatory scenario impacting different sectors. He writes on aviation, railways, post and telegraph, infrastructure, defence, media & entertainment, among a wide variety of other subjects.
