Burdened with a steep rise in the LPG subsidy bill, GAIL (India) on Friday reported a 10 per cent drop in net profit to Rs.985.38 crore in July-September 2012 from Rs.1,094.41 crore a year earlier, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B. C. Tripathi told reporters here. “Our profit is down primarily because of a 39 per cent rise in outgo towards LPG subsidy. The company paid Rs.786 crore towards subsidising LPG as compared to Rs.567 crore a year ago,” he added.
Mr. Tripathi said the profit was also lower because the firm transmitted lesser natural gas owing to fall in output at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Eastern offshore KG-D6 gas fields. The fall in output at KG-D6 field meant that GAIL’s pipeline network was transporting 10 million standard cubic metres per day or a little less than 10 per cent less volumes. “GAIL has already tied up Rs.4,400-4,500 crore debt that it had planned to raise to fund part of the Rs.7,300 crore capital expenditure during the current fiscal. He said GAIL had tied up import of 7 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet growing domestic demand and also plans to ship as many as 8 cargoes from the spot market during the remaining part of the year.
GAIL board also approved nearly doubling of the Jamnagar-Loni LPG transmission pipeline to 4.5 million tonnes at a cost of about Rs.2,000 crore in the next 36 months.