NEW DELHI, Feb 10: The Indian unit of Britain's Cairn Energy reported a huge leap in quarterly profit on Thursday amid an ongoing standoff over its sale to British resources giant Vedanta.

The company reported net profit jumped to $448 million in the third quarter to December, up from a profit of $62 million in the same period a year earlier, thanks to higher crude output from its fields in western India.

Revenues soared to $691 million from $106 million a year earlier.

Production from Cairn India's oil-rich Mangala field in Rajasthan, the company's most important asset, “has consistently delivered,” Cairn India chief executive Rahul Dhir said in a statement.

Cairn India said average production totaled 124,861 barrels per day from Rajasthan state in the third quarter compared with 15,430 barrels a year earlier.

The figures came as India has been piling pressure on Cairn Energy, saying it will not approve sale of its controlling stake in its Indian unit to Vedanta unless the concerns of its Indian state-owned partner ONGC are satisfied.

There have been growing doubts over whether the bid, worth up to $9.6 billion by London-listed Vedanta, will go through. Cairn India holds stakes in 10 oil and gas blocks in the country and has tie-ups with state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's largest oil producer by output.

India's government has said it wants to set new conditions before giving its consent to Vedanta to assume control over Cairn India.

Emaar net profit falls DUBAI: Emaar Properties , builder of the world's tallest tower, posted a 62 percent fall in fourth-quarter profit, hit by impairments related to its associates and the results missed analysts forecasts.

Net profit in the fourth quarter of 2010 fell to 274 million dirhams ($74.60 million), down from a net profit of 720.12 million dirhams during the same period in 2009.

Award for Emirates

Emirates, the Dubai-based carrier, won the 'Airline of the Year' award, which was received by its President Tim Clark in Washington, D.C.

Speaking on the occasion he said that despite the challenges the airline has kept its focus on delivering the very highest standards of product, passenger comfort and operational efficiency, says a message. PetroChina to invest in Canada gas

BEIJING: Chinese oil giant PetroChina will pay Can$5.4 billion ($5.43bn) for a 50 per cent stake in a shale gas project developed in Canada by Encana, North America's top gas producer, the firms said on Thursday. The deal is the latest investment by China's top oil producer in Canada as the energy-guzzling nation scours the world for natural resources needed to fuel its fast-growing economy.—Agencies