Petronet LNG

Petronet LNG set up India’s first LNG receiving and regasification terminal at Dahej, Gujarat, and is in the process of building another terminal at Kochi, Kerala. While the Dahej terminal has a nominal capacity of 10 MMTPA [equivalent to 40 MMSCMD of natural gas], the Kochi terminal will have a capacity of 5 MMTPA [equivalent to 20 MMSCMD of natural gas. The company posted a very healthy set of numbers for Q3FY13. It posted a net sales of Rs.8375 crore, up 34% on a YoY. Its 9MFY13 sales has already surpassed FY12 sales at Rs.22856 crore. Net profit for the quarter was at Rs.318 crore, up 8%. This was despite a 35% rise in operating costs and forex loss of Rs.7.25 crore. 9MFY13 net profit at Rs.904 crore is already 85% of FY12 net profit and with one more quarter to go, clearly, it will end FY13 on a much better note.

Its Kochi terminal is expected to be commissioned within the next 3 months. The pipeline connecting the terminal to  Kochi area is also almost completed but the one connecting Bangalore and Mangalore have got delayed  and are expected to now get ready only by early 2014. Thus the full advantage of higher volumes will accrue to the company only in FY15 and till then it’s Kochi terminal will meet demand in and around the area. The company is also in the process of expanding its Dahej facility but in two phases. In the first phase, the LNG jetty to improve loading/unloading capacity is expected to be completed by early 2014. The second phase will see expansion of its Dahej’s current capacity from 10 to 15 million tonnes. This is expected to completed by early 2016. Thus the company will continue to grow but we can expect to see a major jump in its earnings from FY15 onwards.