ONGC shares decline 4% after Q3 earnings, board declares ₹6.25 dividend; check details

This comes despite the largest government-owned oil and gas exploration and production company posting strong earnings for the third quarter of the 2025-26 financial year (Q3FY26).

The stock was trading 3.09% lower at ₹267.80 per equity share as of 2:17 pm. It has surged 10% over the month and 13% on a year-to-date basis.

The scrip had hit a 52-week high of ₹280.30 apiece on February 12, 2026, ahead of the result announcement. It touched a year’s low of ₹205 on April 7, 2025.

ONGC Q3 results

The state-owned firm reported a 23% year-on-year (YoY) increase in its consolidated net profit to ₹11,946.42 crore for the December quarter of FY26, compared to ₹9,746.54 crore in the year-ago period.

The bottom-line growth was aided by higher realisations from new wells and reduced statutory levies, which offset the impact of lower crude oil prices.

Its revenue from operations remained flat YoY at ₹1.67 lakh crore during the quarter under review.

On a standalone basis, India's top producer of crude oil realised over 10% lower earnings on every barrel of crude produced. Natural gas revenues, however, rose.

The company earned $61.63 per barrel in Q3, down from $72.57 a barrel in October-December 2024.

Gas sales price, however, improved to $6.59 per million British thermal units from $6.50.

ONGC Director (Finance) Vivek Chandrakant Tongaonkar said during an investor call that the earnings rose on the back of higher revenues from new well gas, higher other income and lower statutory levies.

Under the government's new well gas pricing formula, output from newly drilled fields is priced at a premium to the administered price mechanism (APM) rate, allowing producers to realise higher revenues from incremental production.

Tongaonkar said incremental revenue from new well gas in Q3 was ₹294 crore and ₹944 crore in April-December (first nine months of current fiscal).

Following a decline in global crude prices - to which ONGC's crude realisations are benchmarked - the company paid lower royalty and cess, which are levied on an ad valorem basis. Statutory levies fell to ₹5,975 crore in the third quarter from ₹6,630 crore a year earlier, he said.

The same was the reason for a 6.4% fall in gross revenues (standalone) to ₹31,546 crore in Q3.

Tongaonkar said new well gas made up for 18% of the total revenues of the company in the first nine months of the current fiscal.

"During 9M FY26, revenue from new well gas stood at ₹5,028 crore, delivering an additional ₹944 crore revenue compared to the APM gas price. New well gas now contributes more than 18% of total gas sales revenue from the ONGC portfolio," he said.

Crude oil production was almost flat at 4.592 million tonnes in Q3 as compared to 4.653 million tonnes a year back. For the 9-months, the output was marginally higher at 13.9 million tonnes.

Natural gas production too inched up marginally to about 5 billion cubic meters in Q3 and 14.75 billion cubic meters in 9M.

Board declares dividend

The board of directors of ONGC also approved its second interim dividend of 125%, i.e., ₹6.25 on each equity share of ₹5. It will have a total payout of ₹7,863 crore on this account.

It also fixed February 18, 2026, as the record date for the same.

The company also stated that the dividend is in addition to the first interim dividend of ₹6 per share (120%), which was declared in November 2025.

ONGC has a total market capitalisation of ₹3.37 lakh crore, as of February 13, 2026, according to data on the NSE.