The solid numbers were driven by increased revenue from natural gas trading, better price realisation and lower subsidy burden
New Delhi : State gas utility GAIL India Ltd reported a 57 per cent jump in its fourth-quarter net profit on the back of better petrochemical and LPG prices and drop in subsidy outgo.
GAIL posted a net profit of Rs 972 crore in January-March quarter, up from Rs 618 crore in the same period a year ago, company Chairman and Managing Director B C Tripathi told reporters here.
Net profit was up as the company realised Rs 96,000 per ton price for petrochemicals it produces, against Rs 82,000 a ton in the previous fiscal, he said, adding price realisation on LPG also increased by 8 per cent to Rs 56,000 a ton.
Also, the subsidy the company pays for subsidising diesel and cooking gas came down to Rs 500 crore from Rs 567 crore in Q4 in Q4 2012-13.
“During Q4, gas transmission volumes were down and so was gas marketing due to fall in production at Panna/Mukta and Tapti field (in western offshore) and east coast (KG-D6) field,” Tripathi said.
Natural gas sale fell to 76.26 million standard cubic meters per day from 80.13 mmscmd in Q4 2012-13 while fuel transportation volumes fell to 94.66 mmscmd from 99.49 mmscmd.
During the fourth quarter, the petrochemical production was 83,000 tons as against 119,000 tons in the corresponding quarter last year. Turnover was up 17 per cent to Rs 14,464 crore.
Tripathi said for the full 2013-14 fiscal net profit was up 9 per cent at Rs 4,375 crore while turnover rose 21 per cent to Rs 57,245 crore. In the full fiscal, GAIL contributed Rs 1900 crore towards fuel subsidy, down from Rs 2,600 crore a year ago.
Upstream oil and gas producers GAIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) compensate a portion of the losses refiners incur on selling diesel, LPG and kerosene at government controlled rates.
GAIL, he said, imported 7 cargoes or shiploads of liquefied natural gas (LNG) in Q4, taking the total to 26 in 2013-14.
“In current fiscal, we plan to import 36 cargoes of LNG,” he said adding of this 18 shiploads will be from supplies the medium term supplies contracted and the rest from spot market.
The company has cut capital expenditure for 2014-15 to Rs 3,100 crore from Rs 4,000 crore in previous year because it is going slow on new pipeline projects in absence of customers and availability of gas.
During Q4, gas transmission volumes were down and so was gas marketing due to fall in production at Panna/Mukta and Tapti field (in western offshore) and east coast (KG-D6) field” B C Tripathi, Chairman and Managing Director
The Board of Directors of GAIL has recommended payment of total dividend at the rate of 104 per cent, inclusive of 45 per cent interim dividend already paid.
During the full fiscal, sales from natural gas trading increased by 24 per cent to Rs 48,922 crore while petrochemicals rose by 22 per cent to Rs 4,582 crore.
Revenues from natural gas transmission business increased by 23 per cent to Rs 4,104 crore.
“The increase in net profit during the current financial year was mainly due to the increase in revenue from natural gas trading, LPG transmission and better price realisation of petrochemicals and LPG,” he said.
During 2013-14, petrochemical production were almost falt at 436,000 tons. Natural gas transmission fell to 96.22 mmscmd from 104.90 mmscmd last year. The natural gas sales at 79.18 msmcmd was lower than 81.44 mmscmd in the last year.
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