(Reuters) – India’s Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) plans to invest $121 million to develop the Nunukan oil and gas block in Indonesia, the company said in a exchange filing on Wednesday.
BPCL’s exploration unit, Bharat PetroResources, holds a 16.23% stake in the Nunukan block, operated by Indonesia’s national oil company, Pertamina.
The Indian refiner is seeking approvals from Indonesian regulators for the block’s development.
BPCL, the country’s second-largest state refiner, also reported on Wednesday a lower-than-expected 37% jump in its December quarter profit at about 46.5 billion rupees.
During the quarter, the company operated its three refineries at an average 107% capacity despite a maintenance shutdown.
BPCL’s Q3 profit was affected by lower marketing margins and losses from liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sales. The company’s revenue loss on LPG sales below market rates amounted to about 72.29 billion rupees, according to a stock exchange filing.
“The government has supported us in the past on LPG under-recovery, and we are confident it will do so again this year,” BPCL chairman G. Krishnakumar said.
(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das, Nidhi Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
