Petronet net soars 75% on higher sales

Petronet LNG, the company which operates the country's largest LNG regassification terminal in Gujarat, has recorded a 75 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 115.51 crore for the quarter ended September 2007 compared with Rs 66.03 crore in the corresponding quarter last year primarily on the back of strong capacity utilisation and higher sales.

The company, which is the largest importer of LNG in the country, recorded a total income of Rs 1682.64 crore during the quarter, higher by 21.68 per cent from the 1,382.78 crore from the corresponding previous quarter.

During the quarter, the company achieved capacity utilisation of 135 per cent. It is currently in the process of ramping up the capacity of its LNG terminal to 10 million tonne per annum from the current 5 million tonne which will be commissioned progressively between July and December 2008.

Earnings per share (EPS) during the quarter rose to Rs 1.54 from 88 paise in the last corresponding quarter. For the first half of the current financial year ended September 2007, Petronet LNG recorded a net profit of Rs 223.53 crore, up 83 per cent from the 122.12 crore recorded in the same period of the last financial year.

Total revenues also increased 34.81 per cent to Rs 3245.24 crore during the half year from Rs 2407.14 crore in the corresponding year-ago period.

EPS during the half year was higher at Rs 2.98 from Rs 1.63 in the year-ago period.

The company's board has also approved a proposal to conduct a feasibility study for setting up a 1,200 mw power plant at Dahej, Gujarat at an estimated cost of Rs 3,000 crore, Petronet said in a statement.

Petronet, jointly promoted by GAIL (India), Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation, and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, also said it was in the final stages of selecting an engineering, procurement and construction contractor for setting up a 2.5 million tonne per annum LNG terminal at Kochi, Kerala.