GAIL (India) Ltd is betting on imported gas to meet the country’s energy requirements. The company plans to buy four spot cargoes in January-March quarter of the current fiscal, the GAIL Chairman and Managing Director, Mr B.C. Tripathi, said.
Speaking to newspersons after the company’s board meeting here on Monday, he said to meet the domestic demand the company is aggressively looking at short-term/long-term contracts.
GAIL has been in talks with five-six players including Macquarie Energy to source liquefied natural gas (LNG). The price of gas should be attractive enough for GAIL to get it into India, he said.
The 13 per cent increase in the net profit for the third quarter of the current fiscal versus the same quarter last year at Rs 1,091 crore was mainly driven by three components – higher revenues from natural gas trading business, higher volumes and price realisation from LPG as well as better price realisation from petrochemicals business.
GAIL registered a turnover of Rs 11,260 crore in the third quarter, a 35 per cent increase over the turnover in the corresponding period during the last financial year.
Capex plans
The company has plans to spend around Rs 9,000 crore on capital expenditure this in 2012-13, he said. The company plans to raise loans worth Rs 5,000 crore for the next fiscal year, he said adding that between now and March it will raise $100 million.
Marketing margin
On the Government’s move to ask the Petroleum & Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) to determine the quantum of marketing margin that marketer of gas can charge the consumers, he said that his company has taken up with the Government that imported gas be excluded.
The Petroleum Ministry has asked the board to look into the marketing margin charged by players such as Reliance Industries and GAIL on the sale of domestic gas and imported LNG.
GAIL charges a $0.20/ mmBtu marketing margin on gas produced from the Panna/Mukta and Tapti joint venture fields and a similar rate on the sale of LNG. The margin charged by GAIL increases by 5 per cent every year.
It also charges a fixed marketing margin of $0.11/mmBtu on selling gas produced ONGC and Oil India fields.
GAIL shares closed at Rs 369.95 on the BSE on Monday.