The Hindu : Business : Reliance Q2 profit up 39 p.c. at Rs. 1,752 crores

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 26, 2004

Business

Business

Reliance Q2 profit up 39 p.c. at Rs. 1,752 crores

By Ramnath Subbu

MUMBAI, OCT. 25. A robust domestic demand for petroleum products and improved operating margins have seen Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) better its financial performance for the second quarter ended September 30, 2004. The company reported a 39 per cent rise in net profit at Rs. 1,752 crores (Rs. 1,263 crores).

Net sales for the period were up 27 per cent at Rs. 16,164 crores (Rs. 12,693 crores). The company's refining margins were at $7.7.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL, said, "We are happy that Reliance has reported another quarter of record breaking financial performance. With continuing indication of an upturn in the refining and petrochemical cycle, we are confident of achieving superior performance in the quarters ahead.''

Although there was a high volatility in product and raw material prices, there was a significant reduction in import tariffs across major petroleum products. There was robust growth in demand for petroproducts while demand for petrochemical products was marginally subdued due to inventory corrections in the downstream industry, according to Anil Ambani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, RIL.

For the half year, the company's net profit was at Rs. 3,189 crores (Rs. 2,367 crores), an increase of 35 per cent. The company's gross turnover at Rs. 43,680 crores was 24 per cent higher than the year-ago figure and the operating profit was up 31 per cent at Rs. 6,618 crores. Other income was at Rs. 643 crores (Rs. 438 crores). The operating margin was at 19.6 per cent (18.4 per cent).

Development plan

In the oil and gas business, a development plan for producing 40 million cubic metres a day of gas initially from the KG-D6 block has been submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons and is awaiting approval.

The company's production of oil and gas and petrochemicals including toll conversion is at 6.29 million tonnes in the half year under reference (6.05 million tonnes) with the company's refinery operating at 96 per cent capacity and processing 15.94 million tonnes of crude. Exports of refining products were 4.8 million tonnes (4.5 million tonnes).

Reliance has the approvals for setting up 5,849 retail outlets in India. As on date, the company has commissioned over 200 outlets and by the end of March 2005, it will have a significant presence in the retailing of transportation fuels.

Oil output

The Panna-Mukta fields produced 6.13 lakh tonnes of crude oil and 640 million cubic metres of gas during the period. With additional production from the newly drilled infill wells, the current production has increased to 31,000 barrels from 25,000 barrels of oil per day and around 3.77 million standard cubic metres a day of gas (3.51 million standard cubic metres a day). The Tapti field produced around 932 million cubic metres of gas during the period and with the installation of additional compression at Tapti in October, the gas production is expected to increase to around 7.08 mscmd as against 5.1 mscmd.

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