GAIL Q1 net drops 32% at Rs 424.14 cr

State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd today reported a 32 per cent drop in net profit at Rs 424.14 crore for the first quarter ended June on account of drop in LPG and petrochemical production and lower prices.

The company had earned a net profit of Rs 621.44 crore in the April-June quarter of the previous fiscal, a company press statement said here.

The net profit was down despite the company not having to pay any fuel subsidy in the current fiscal. In Q1 of 2014-15 financial year, GAIL had paid Rs 500 crore so that fuel retailers could sell diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government controlled rates.

The government has in Q1 exempted GAIL and oil producers ONGC and Oil India from making up a portion of revenue that retailers lose on fuel sales. The government will meet all of the revenue loss or under-recoveries.

"The decrease in profit was mainly due to lower price realisation of LPG, other liquid hydrocarbons and petrochemicals and reduced production of LPG, petrochemicals due to shut down in Pata Petrochemical plant," it said.

Also impacting the profit was increased interest and depreciation charges after commissioning of petrochemical expansion project.

Turnover dipped from Rs 13,544.66 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 to Rs 12,643.86 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2015.

GAIL said revenue from natural gas transmission rose 40 per cent to Rs 925 crore in April-June but the same from natural gas sales dropped to Rs 10,581 crore from Rs 11,669 crore in Q1 of last fiscal.

Revenue from petrochemical business almost halved to Rs 516 crore as against Rs 993 crore in April-June of previous year.

Revenue from LPG transmission business rose 23 per cent to Rs 136 crore. The same from LPG and other liquid hydrocarbons was lower at Rs 929 crore in Q1 of current fiscal as compared to Rs 1,260 crore a year ago.

GAIL transported 87.48 million standard cubic meters per day of natural gas in April-June as opposed to 96.91 mmscmd a year ago. Polymer production almost halved to 51,000 tonnes while other liquid hydrocarbons output too fell to 278,000 tons from 327,000 tonnes in Q1 of previous year.