Petronet LNG, the nation's largest importer of liquefied natural gas, today reported 19% rise in net profit in the fourth quarter of 2011-12 on back of higher volumes.
Net profit in January-March at Rs 245.12 crore was 19% higher than Rs 206.27 crore in the same period a year ago, Petronet LNG Managing Director and CEO AK Balyan said.
"We imported and regassified 135 trillion British thermal units against 126 tBtus in the corresponding quarter last year," he said.
With the increase in volume, turnover of the company rose 60% to Rs 6,375.43 crore.
"During the financial year ended March 31, 2012, the company has operated at 107% of its capacity [nameplate capacity of the Dahej terminal being 10 million tonne per annum] and processed a total volume of 5489 tBtus against a total regasification volume of 440 tBtus in the previous year," he said.
Petronet imported 171 shiploads of LNG (natural gas turned into liquid form at minus 160 degrees temprature for ease of transportation in ships) under the 7.5 million tonne a year long-term import contract with RasGas of Qatar. Another 34 cargoes were imported from spot market.
The Dahej terminal also received another 21 cargoes that were imported by state-owned gas utility GAIL India and Gujarat State Petroleum Corp (GSPC).
Petronet plans to expand the Dahej terminal in Gujarat to 15 million tonne at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore. This includes Rs 1,000 crore towards cost of builing a third jetty at the port.
About Rs 2,000 crore of the funds would be raised as debt in 3-4 months time, Petronet Director (Finance) RK Garg said adding another Rs 4,000 crore would be invested in terminal on east coast.
Petronet is building a 5 million tonne capacity import terminal at Kochi by end of current year. The third terminal at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh would have an equal capacity and would take 3-4 years to build.
While financial closure of Kochi terminal has already been completed, the company would raise Rs 3,000 crore in debt for the east coast terminal sometime next year.
