New Delhi, May 26: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today reported a 12 per cent rise in its March-quarter net profit as it reversed part of the impairment losses and got back some of the fuel subsidy from the government.

The oil explorer clocked a net profit of Rs 4,416 crore in the January-March quarter compared with Rs 3,935 crore in the same period a year ago, chairman and managing director D.K. Sarraf told reporters here.

For the full fiscal 2015-16, ONGC posted a net profit of Rs 16,004 crore on a turnover of Rs 78,569 crore. This was against a net profit of Rs 17,733 crore on a turnover of Rs 83,094 crore in 2014-15 .

The profit came as the company reversed Rs 800 crore of impairment taken earlier on the drop in oil prices. It got another Rs 633 crore from the government for excess fuel subsidy it had paid earlier. It also gained Rs 1,585 crore on dry well provisioning.

"We had in the third quarter of 2015-16 provided for an impairment loss of Rs 3,994 crore. This has now been brought down to Rs 3,142 crore after crude prices rebounded a bit," he said.

Impairment is taken to reflect the value of oil and gas reserves a company holds after the prices have fallen.

In the first quarter of 2015-16, ONGC had paid Rs 1,133 crore to fuel retailers to subsidise LPG and kerosene and another Rs 596 crore in the July-September quarter.

The subsidy accounts have been adjusted against the slump in oil prices to multi-year lows. The April-June subsidy has been trimmed to Rs 1,096 crore and all such payouts in the second quarter have been returned, he said.

Profit rose despite crude production falling 1.7 per cent to 6.34 million tonnes. Gas output also dropped nearly 10 per cent to 5.24 billion cubic metres.