 "Petronet LNG")
India’s largest liquified natural gas importer Petronet LNG’s net profit grew 9 per cent to Rs 855.7 crore for the second quarter of 2023-24 (Q2FY24) owing to efficiency in operations and higher capacity utilisation of its Dahej Terminal.
The terminal's utilisation level, which was 80 per cent in FY23, has remained consistently above 90 per cent in FY24 so far.
Sequentially, the profit was 4.4 per cent higher than Rs 819.3 crore registered in the first quarter.
The state-run firm’s revenue from operations for the quarter came in 21.6 per cent lower Y-o-Y at Rs 12,532 crore, the company said. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) increased to Rs 1,409.13 crore from Rs 1,308.59 crore in the year-ago period.
Net profit for the first half of this financial year stood at Rs 1,608 crore as against Rs 1,445 crore in the corresponding period during the last financial year.
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The Petronet LNG board on Monday approved the setting up of a petrochemical plant in Dahej with an estimated cost of Rs 20,685 crore. The board also approved a special interim dividend of Rs 7 per share.
Gujarat’s Dahej is the largest single location LNG storage and regasification terminal in the country. The terminal processed 427 trillion British thermal units (tBtu) of LNG in FY24 so far as against 378 tBtu in the first six months of FY23.
The overall LNG volume processed by the company in Q2 was 223 tBtu, up from 192 tBtu in Q2FY23.
The petrochemical plant would bring revenue generation from sale of poly-propylene, propylene, propane, hydrogen and ethane, the company said. It will also benefit from utilising ‘ColdEnergy’ of Pteronet's existing terminal at Dahej, making the project energy-efficient, it said. Petronet plans to develop 25 hectare of green belt area in the region.
"Besides significantly improving the top line and the bottom line of the company, the project aims to enhance the self-efficiency of the country in the field of petrochemicals," Petronet said.
The company is expanding capacity by 9 million tonnes (mt), including 5 mt at its LNG terminal at Dahej and 4 mt capacity at Gopalpur. The Dahej project is expected to end by March, 2024 while Gopalpur will take more time, the company said.
In an analyst call, Petronet's head of finance V K Mishra said the company was not seeking additional volumes when it renews its long-term LNG deal with Qatar.
