ONGC jumps on winning 20 oil & gas exploration blocks

Oil & Natural Gas Corporation spurted 4.47% to Rs 679.50 at 10:37 IST on BSE on bagging 20 out of the 44 blocks that were awarded under the government’s New Exploration Licensing Policy.
The stock hit a high of Rs 685 and a low of Rs 640 so far during the day. The stock had a 52-week high of Rs 1356.70 on 4 January 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 538.10 on 27 October 2008.
India's largest state-run oil explorer by market capitalisation has an equity capital of Rs 2138.87 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.
The current price of Rs 679.50 discounts its Q2 September 2008 annualised EPS of Rs 89.92, by a PE multiple of 7.55.
Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and its partners have bagged 20 out of the 44 blocks that have been awarded under the seventh round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP-VII). Of the 20 blocks that ONGC and its partners bagged, three are for deep-water, five for shallow-water and the balance 12 for on-land blocks.
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), which met on Thursday (20 November 2008), decided to award 44 out of the 45 oil and gas blocks to the first ranked/sole bidders.
The Centre had launched the NELP-VII on 13 December last year, offering 57 exploration blocks, which included 19 deep-water, nine shallow-water and 29 on-land blocks. The bids were opened on 30 June 2008. In all, 181 bids were received from 95 companies for 45 blocks (12 deep-water, seven shallow-water and 26 on-land).
The bids were, on 30 September 2008, considered by the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (CoS), which made recommendations to the CCEA for award of the blocks.
ONGC's net profit fell 5.7% to Rs 4808.41 crore on 12.9% increase in net sales to Rs 17,407.40 crore in Q2 September 2008 over Q2 September 2007.
ONGC specializes in the exploration and production of crude oil and gas. The company has joint ventures in oil fields in Vietnam, Norway, Egypt, Tunisia, Iran and Australia. The Group's other activities include deep-sea explorations on the east and west coasts of India, and the exploration of coal bed methane.