Comments
Petronet LNG has reported a 5 per cent sequential increase in consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30 at ₹670 crore compared to net profit of ₹638 crore in the previous quarter ended March 30.
On a year-on-year basis, net profit for the quarter under review grew 34 per cent from ₹500 crore recorded in the June quarter last fiscal.
Total revenue for the quarter under review grew 13.7 per cent to ₹8,667 crore from ₹7,625 crore in the previous quarter. In the corresponding quarter last fiscal, the company had recorded a revenue of ₹4,952 crore.
On a standalone basis, net profit for the first quarter this fiscal came in at ₹636 crore, higher than ₹623 crore in the March quarter. In the first quarter last fiscal, the company had recorded a standalone profit of ₹520 crore, filings made by Petronet with the stock exchanges showed.
Akshay Kumar Singh, Managing Director & CEO, Petronet LNG, told newspersons that the overall Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) volume processed by the company during the quarter under review was 209 trillion british thermal units (TBTU) against 190 TBTU in the corresponding quarter last fiscal and 218 TBTU in the March quarter.
Singh said that international LNG prices, which was hovering around $4-5 per Metric Million British Thermal Unit (MMBTU) in the first quarter last fiscal, has now shot up to around $14-16 per MMBTU. There has been substantial price increase in international prices which are to some extent affecting export cargo. “We don’t foresee any impact of this on our cargo operations as we have long term contracts. Our business was severely impacted by Covid second wave. In spite of that, the impact, on the volume handled by us was very minimal when compared to the fourth quarter of last fiscal. We handled only three cargo less in the first quarter at Dahej. Our capacity utilisation has been 86 per cent. But high international prices are still a worrying factor for the country,” he said.
Possibility of growth
Although there has been an increase in gas production in the recent past, Singh felt this trend will not be sustained for a long period.
“LNG demand is going to grow much faster than what has happened in the past. We see huge potential for LNG use in transportation sector and we are working hard to increase the use of the LNG in transport sector and replace diesel,” he said.
Singh also said that Petronet LNG does not consider hydrogen a threat to LNG for the next five years. He said hydrogen is only an emerging fuel while LNG is already an established fuel. He noted that all fuels will have their share in the fuel pie in the country. “Our assessment is that LNG is going to remain as preferred transport fuel for long time in our country,” he said.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.