Hindustan Oil Exploration Company soared higher following the oil find in the Cambay Basin of Gujarat.

By 15:10 IST, the scrip was locked at its 20% upper circuit of Rs 23.50. Substantial volumes of over 520,000 Hindustan Oil Exploration Company shares changed hands on BSE . At that level, the outstanding buy position was 77,767 shares on the counter. In the five sessions between 2 and 9 May 2003, the scrip of the oil exploration company rose 19% to Rs 19.60 from Rs 16.50.

The rise in the Hindustan Oil Exploration scrip is purely attributed to the oil find by the company at the Block CB-ON/7, onshore Cambay basin, near Palej town. Well Pramoda-1 released as exploration step out well to appraise the Palej-4 fault block has encountered oil and associated gas bearing sands. Testing of one of these sand intervals at 1815 metres has resulted in crude oil flow at the rate of 48 cubic meters per day through 5mm bean with a flowing pressure of 43kg/cm2, the company said on Saturday.

The company is currently evaluating data obtained from the well to determine the commercial viability of the Pramoda prospect. HOEC is the operator of the block and the other partner is Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation.

For the third quarter ended 31 December 2002, the company recorded a massive 96.5% fall in net profit of 0.23 crore on a 24% drop in total income to Rs 12.69 crore.

As on 31 March 2003, the public, private corporate bodies and institutions held 37.58%, 24.50% and 0.77% stake in the company, respectively.