GAIL (India) on Monday announced that its net profit more than tripled to Rs.860 crore in the third quarter ended December 31 from Rs.253 crore in the same quarter in the previous year.
Addressing a press conference here, GAIL Chairman and Managing Director B.C. Tripathi said revenues from the gas transmission business rose by 40 per cent to Rs.853 crore as the company earned revenue from transporting about 25 million standard cubic metres a day of KG-D6 gas. Also, the company’s contribution towards subsidising fuel halved to Rs.455 crore from Rs.905 crore a year ago, he added.
Mr. Tripathi said the turnover rose by 6.5 per cent to Rs.6,188 crore during the quarter. The company, he said, planned to invest Rs.5,500 crore (to be raised in debt) next fiscal mostly in high-pressure long-distance gas pipelines. GAIL would raise Rs.2,000 crore in overseas convertible bonds and Rs.1,500 crore through external commercial borrowings in 2011-12, he said.
Mr. Tripathi said the company planned to take 4.17 per cent stake in the $2.01-billion gas pipeline that China was building in Myanmar to transport natural gas found off the Myanmar coast. “Our board has approved a proposal to take stake in the pipeline that will transport gas from offshore block A-1 and A-3 to China,” he remarked. The board of ONGC Videsh, the overseas investment arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), has also approved taking 8.35 per cent stake in the pipeline. OVL and GAIL will together invest $251.2 million in the 870-km pipeline China National Petroleum Corporation is laying to take A-1 and A-3 gas to mainland China. Mr. Tripathi said CNPC had offered 49.9 per cent stake to the consortium developing gas fields in blocks A-1 and A-3.
