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Petronet LNG annual profit up 8.6% to record `1,149 cr

Addressing a press conference, Petronet LNG Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Dr A K Balyan informed that the Dahej terminal has operated at 103 per cent of its nameplate capacity and processed a total volume of 525 TBTUs.

The company's turnover during fiscal 2012-13 increased by 39 per cent to Rs 31,467.44 crore compared to a turnover of Rs 22,695.86 crore during the financial year 2011-12.

The annual net profit of the liquefied natural gas giant increased to Rs 1,149.28 crore, which marks a rise of 8.6 per cent from the previous fiscal and the highest ever annual net profit achieved by the company.

The Board of Directors, in its meeting on Tuesday, recommended a dividend of Rs 2.50 per equity share of Rs 10 each (25 per cent) for the year 2012-13 subject to shareholders' approval.

The company also reported a marginal rise in net profit to Rs 245.14 crore in the fourth quarter of 21012-13 compared to Rs 245.12 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

The total income of the company rose 32.64 per cent to Rs 8,485.88 crore from Rs 6,397.54 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2011-12.

Balyan also noted that considering the growing demand of natural gas in the country, Petronet LNG has already initiated the process of further expanding the capacity of the Dahej terminal to 15 mmtpa and said that the firm plans to award the relevant EPC contracts by September.

He added that the greenfield Kochi LNG terminal is now mechanically complete and is expected to be commissioned in July.

He informed that Petronet LNG’s first east coast Greenfield project at Gangavaram port, Andhra Pradesh, too is scheduled to get environmental clearance soon.

The Petronet LNG CEO & MD also stressed that to ensure gas availability in the entire country, pipeline connectivity needs to be fast improved as it is a major problem faced by the company. Balyan informed that the Board is studying the prospect of joint ventures with companies of Qatar, Russia, the USA and Canada for LNG projects, observing that these countries, too, view India as a lucrative and growing market.


ONGC MAKES 3 MAJOR OIL & GAS DISCOVERIES


The ONGC Board, at a meeting on Tuesday, took note of three significant new discoveries which have been notified. They are situated in NELP block KG-DWN-2005/1 of the KG deep offshore basin (a new prospect discovery), NELP block KG-DWN-98/2  of the KG deep offshore basin (a new pool discovery) and GK-28 PML in the Kutch shallow offshore of the Western offshore basin (a new pool discovery)

The ONGC Board also cleared three major projects with a total investment of more than Rs 2,000 crore. — the acquisition of new well stimulation vessel for Mumbai offshore, development of three shallow-water wells in Eastern offshore and an access control and surveillance system.

Exploratory well KGD051NAA#1 of NELP block KG-DWN-2005/1 in the KG deep offshore basin was drilled to a depth of 5,010 m (intermediate depth). It was the interval between 4,634 m and 4,646.8 m in the Ravva formation of the Miocene age that was found interesting from the hydrocarbon point of view. The well is currently under further drilling and this discovery provides an exploration lead to the south of the prolific KG-DWN-98/2 block.

Exploratory/ appraisal well KG-DWN-98-A#2 of NELP Block KG-DWN-98/2 in the KG deep offshore basin was drilled to a depth of 2,541 m. The interval between 2,075 m abd  2,171.5 m was found interesting.

The interval between 2,101-2,119 m and 2,138-2,165 m on conventional testing produced oil at the rate 3,200 bopd and gas at the rate 1,13,760 m3/ day through 32/64 choke. The Results of this well, the second appraisal well after U#3, will give a significant boost to ONGC’s efforts to monetise discoveries in the Northern Discovery Area of this block.

Exploratory/ appraisal well GK-28 # 9 of GK-28 PML in the Kutch shallow offshore, Western offshore basin, was drilled to a depth of 1,365 m. The interval between 1,249 m and 1,251 m in the Nakhatarana formation of the Paleocene age produced gas at the rate 2,21,950 m3/day on conventional testing. This will add value to the GK-28/GK-42 areas which ONGC plans to put on production, giving India a new producing basin.

Coming to the three investment proposals, the estimated cost of constructing a latest-technology purpose-built state-of-the-art well stimulation vessel is Rs 1,384 crore ($250 million). The vessel will improve well productivity in three ONGC offshore assets and basins and have some advanced features like a 150 tonne-capacity knuckle boom heave compensated crane, which is not available in any stimulation vessel in the world.

Besides, three wells — GS15-9, GS15-E1 and GS48-1 — will be developed through sub-sea mud-line trees at a cost of Rs 284.82 crore and on a concept-to-commissioning basis. The project, based on new technology, is expected to be completed by 30 April, 2014 and expected gross production is 1,702.290 mmscm.

Finally, a pan-ONGC access control and surveillance system project will be undertaken at an estimated cost of Rs 407.50 crore. It will provide access control and video surveillance for all critical assets and infrastructure of ONGC, including the company's cyber/ IT framework and system, and connect 72 office locations and 239 operational installations.

The access control and surveillance system will follow a three-tier security architecture in order to provide better monitoring and control from the operational point of view and reduce redundancy at different levels.
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