Profit slides 21.2% at India's

Mumbai Reliance Industries, India's largest private firm, Friday reported a drop in its fourth quarter net profit — its second successive fall — hurt by declining gas output from its offshore fields. The energy giant, controlled by India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, said consolidated net profit fell 21.2 per cent to Rs42.36 billion ( Dh3.02 billion) in the three months ended March, from Rs53.76 billion a year ago. The earnings matched analysts' expectations. Turnover rose 17 per cent to Rs852 billion. Reliance's full year gross refining margins (GRMs) rose 2.3 per cent to $8.6 a barrel, against $8.40 levels a year earlier. "We have created a strong foundation for future growth and are investing in our upstream and petrochemical business in India," Ambani, chairman of Reliance, said in a statement. Analysts have been concerned in recent months about Reliance's ability to improve gas production from its oil blocks off India's east coast. Crude oil production from Reliance's main oil field KG-D6 fell 37.9 per cent year-on-year to 4.94 million barrels of crude oil, the statement said. Natural gas production fell 23.5 per cent to 551.31 billion cubic feet from levels a year earlier. "Production from the KG-D6 block has been adversely impacted due to unforeseen reservoir complexities," the company statement said. Last year, British energy giant BP paid $7.2 billion to acquire a 30 per cent stake in 21 of Reliance's oil and gas fields.