Corporate Results: SNGPL profits more than double

Gas theft and leaks drop by 18% in financial year 2012.

KARACHI:

Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited (SNGPL) net profit more than doubled to Rs1.01 billion in the current financial year so far mainly due to rise in sales.

The only gas provider to the northern part of the country is operating at its full capacity, hence sales swelled 36% to Rs165 billion during July 2011 to March 2012.

Moreover, unaccounted for gas (UFG) losses fell by 18% in the first nine months of fiscal 2012 as SNGPL is reducing leaks and theft, with an allocation of approximately Rs5.4 billion.

The company in terms of volume sold 444,908 million cubic feet (mmcf) of gas during the period against 440,145 mmcf during the same period last year.

During the third quarter, the gas utility was forced to cut gas supply from the industrial sector and provide it to the domestic sector amid heavy demand. The fertiliser sector is one of the hardest hit sectors due to the gas cuts with both the giants Engro and Fauji posting losses during the period.

Gas providers are expecting healthy results in the upcoming financial year as well as they recently asked the regulator to decrease gas prices for consumers as they estimate to make a revenue slightly more than their requirement.

After doing the maths, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines (SNGPL) reported that it is expected to make Rs280 million more than its financial projections in the upcoming financial year.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2012.