Petronet LNG may let out its liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage facility at Kochi to an international operator to improve utilisation.
The 5-million-tonne-a-year terminal is operating at just 5 per cent of its total capacity posing a heavy burden to the company, as it is not connected with pipelines’ network.
AK Balyan, Managing Director and CEO, said the LNG terminal may be let out to an “international operator for storage and reloading”.
“We will now come out with an expression of interest. We can give them capacity of around 2 million tonnes initially…let’s see if it can be for two-three years,” Balyan told reporters.
The company, which imports and sells LNG to domestic consumers, on Friday reported a net profit of ₹135.55 crore for the October-December quarter of this fiscal.
This is a drop of 57.44 per cent from ₹318.50 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
The decrease in net profit was primarily due to higher depreciation and interest charges pertaining to the Kochi terminal, the company said in a statement.
The company is serving a debt and deprecation bill of ₹104 crore every quarter for the Kochi terminal.
Petronet has a total debt of around ₹ 3,000 crore.
Pipeline woesThe volumes are expected to increase only after the pipeline network is put in place, which is being constructed by GAIL (India) Ltd.
Balyan feels the problems preventing the construction of the pipeline are temporary and would be settled soon.
“We are talking to the respective States… the entire pipeline can be laid down in six months.”
Total income during the quarter under review was ₹9,403.73 crore against ₹8,437.7 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.
Petronet stock closed at ₹109.90, up 4.97 per cent, on the BSE on Friday.