ONGC Profits Lag on High Exploration Costs

India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) posted a 19 percent jump in first-quarter profit, but missed estimates, hurt by higher exploration related write-offs.

India's largest oil and gas exploration company posted a net profit of 47.82 billion rupees ($781.2 million) for the quarter ended June 30, up from 40.16 billion rupees last year.

Sales rose 13.5 percent to 218.13 billion rupees.

Analysts on average were expecting ONGC to earn 58.49 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Exploration-related write-offs during the quarter, on account of dry wells, more-than-doubled to 38.28 billion rupees, ONGC said in a release to the exchange.

(1 US$ = 61.2150 Indian rupee)

(Reporting by Aman Shah in Mumbai; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)