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<p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Petronet LNG Ltd, India&#39;s biggest liquefied natural gas buyer, on Friday reported an over 57 per cent drop in net profit for the quarter ended December 2013, as its newly commissioned plant at Kochi drained finances in absence of a pipeline to take gas to consumers. During October-December 2013, net profit declined to INR 136 crore as compared to INR 319 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, Petronet managing director and CEO Ashok K Balyan told reporters here.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">The 5 MT-per-year Kochi LNG import terminal operated at mere 5.2 per cent of capacity as state-owned gas utility GAIL has not laid a pipeline connecting the plant to consumers. &quot;The decrease in net profit is primarily due to higher depreciation and interest charges pertaining to Kochi LNG terminal,&quot; Mr Balyan said. Interest payment on debt and depreciation cost for Kochi was INR 104 crore in the third quarter (October-December), which could not be capitalised in absence of volumes being generated from the terminal, Petronet director (finance) R K Garg said.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Annually interest and depreciation cost would be INR 400 crore, he said. Mr Balyan also said gas sendout or sale from Kochi will rise only after the Kochi-Koottanad-Bangalore-Mangalore pipeline, which is held up due to right of way issues, is commissioned. Petronet currently sells imported gas to consumers around the terminal as only 43-44-km of the planned pipeline is ready, he said. Sales rose 11 per cent to INR 9,382 crore as the weakness of the rupee against US dollar and higher price of LNG imported negated a fall in capacity utilisation of the firm&#39;s main Dahej import facility to 95 per cent of the installed capacity of 10 million tonnes a year.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Mr Balyan said the Dahej terminal will be expanded to 15 million tonnes by end 2016 and Petronet has awarded the contract to build two storage tanks to IHI of Japan and the contract for the plant that re-converts the liquid gas into its gaseous state to Toyo Engineering of Japan. Petronet will build a third terminal at Gangavaram in Andhra Pradesh by 2017, he said.</span></span></span></p> <p style="text-align:justify"><span style="color:#696969"><span style="font-size:11px"><span style="font-family:arial">Source-On Request</span></span></span></p>