Reliance Net Falls on Lower Margins; Misses Estimate
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd., India's most valuable company, said profit declined for the third straight quarter, missing estimates, as the global recession curbed fuel demand and refining margins narrowed.
Net income dropped to 36.4 billion rupees ($754 million), or 23.1 rupees a share, in the three months ended June 30, from 41.1 billion rupees, or 28.30 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based oil refiner and explorer said in a statement today. The median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of 40 billion rupees. Net sales fell 23 percent.
Demand for gasoline and diesel has slumped as the deepest recession since World War II forces consumers to reduce spending on goods and travel. The lower refining profit highlights the need for Chairman Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, to expand natural gas sales from the country's largest field.
"Refining was the major setback," said Vinay Nair, a Mumbai-based analyst with Khandwala Securities Ltd. "Now it will be full priority for the oil and gas sector."
Reliance shares fell 1.2 percent to 2,016.85 rupees in Mumbai trading before the announcement, giving the company a market value of $66 billion. The benchmark Sensitive Index, which gained 1 percent today, has advanced 59 percent this year.
Margins are declining as refiners, including Reliance, bring new capacity online. About 6 million barrels a day of oil- refining capacity will come on stream globally by 2015, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said July 8 in its World Oil Outlook report.
Surplus Capacity
That will create a surplus of more than 4 million barrels a day by 2010, rising to about 5 million barrels a day two years later, where it will remain for "some years," OPEC said.
Reliance earned $7.5 on every barrel of crude processed into fuels compared with $15.7 a barrel a year earlier, the company said. Refining accounted for 65 percent of revenue in the quarter ended June, while the oil and gas business contributed 5 percent, Reliance said in the statement.
Reliance joins SK Energy Co., the biggest South Korean fuel producer, in reporting profit that missed analyst estimates on lower demand for oil products. SK Energy reported net income of 301.4 billion won ($242 million) today, below the median estimate of a 350.8 billion-won profit in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts.
Global profits from turning crude into oil products fell to an average $4.98 a barrel in the quarter ended June 30 from $8.25 a year earlier, according to BP Plc data.
Sales Agreements
Reliance invested $4.7 billion in the KG-D6 gas field in the Bay of Bengal's Krishna Godavari basin, which started production on April 2. Reliance has signed agreements to sell about 15 million cubic meters a day of the fuel to fertilizer companies and as much as 18 million cubic meters a day to power producers nominated by the government.
Peak production at the field may climb to 80 million cubic meters a day by December, P.M.S. Prasad, president and chief executive officer of Reliance's oil and gas business, said March 27, doubling the availability of gas in the country.
Mukesh Ambani, ranked seventh in the Forbes 2009 listing of world billionaires with a net worth of $19.5 billion, is fighting a lawsuit in the Supreme Court over the supply of gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd.
Court Hearing
The younger Ambani, ranked 34 on the Forbes list with a net worth of $10.1 billion, wants to enforce a 2005 agreement requiring Reliance Industries to sell gas at 44 percent less than the government-set price. The court has scheduled the next hearing on Sept. 1.
Reliance shares have fallen 15 percent since the Bombay High Court ruled last month that Reliance Industries must honor the accord that split the family empire. The court lifted the ban on gas sales from the KG-D6 field in January.
The agreement requires Mukesh's company to sell the gas to Reliance Natural at $2.34 per million British thermal units. Reliance Industries says the fuel can't be sold below the $4.2 per million Btu level set by the government in 2007.
Selling the gas at $2.34 per million Btu may lower the value of the total gas reserves at KG-D6 by as much as $3 billion to $13 billion, Nomura Financial said in a June 15 research note.
Domestic Sales
Reliance Industries exports most of its refinery products and plans to counter declining overseas demand by selling fuels in India, the second fastest-growing major economy. It started sales to state-run refiners including Indian Oil Corp., the nation's largest, after giving up the export-only status of its first refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat state, capable of processing 33 millions tons of crude a year.
In December, Reliance started operating a 29 million ton-a- year oil refinery adjacent to the older unit. The new plant can produce high-quality fuels using low-grade crude and shift production among products based on market prices.
Refining capacity worldwide will increase by 7.6 million barrels a day between 2008 and 2014, with 54 percent of the new capability in Asia, the International Energy Agency said June 29. Demand for oil is projected to rise by 3.2 million barrels a day, the Paris-based organization said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at rkatakey@bloomberg.net .
July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Reliance Industries Ltd., India's most valuable company, said profit declined for the third straight quarter, missing estimates, as the global recession curbed fuel demand and refining margins narrowed.
Net income dropped to 36.4 billion rupees ($754 million), or 23.1 rupees a share, in the three months ended June 30, from 41.1 billion rupees, or 28.30 rupees, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based oil refiner and explorer said in a statement today. The median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for profit of 40 billion rupees. Net sales fell 23 percent.
Demand for gasoline and diesel has slumped as the deepest recession since World War II forces consumers to reduce spending on goods and travel. The lower refining profit highlights the need for Chairman Mukesh Ambani, India's richest man, to expand natural gas sales from the country's largest field.
"Refining was the major setback," said Vinay Nair, a Mumbai-based analyst with Khandwala Securities Ltd. "Now it will be full priority for the oil and gas sector."
Reliance shares fell 1.2 percent to 2,016.85 rupees in Mumbai trading before the announcement, giving the company a market value of $66 billion. The benchmark Sensitive Index, which gained 1 percent today, has advanced 59 percent this year.
Margins are declining as refiners, including Reliance, bring new capacity online. About 6 million barrels a day of oil- refining capacity will come on stream globally by 2015, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries said July 8 in its World Oil Outlook report.
Surplus Capacity
That will create a surplus of more than 4 million barrels a day by 2010, rising to about 5 million barrels a day two years later, where it will remain for "some years," OPEC said.
Reliance earned $7.5 on every barrel of crude processed into fuels compared with $15.7 a barrel a year earlier, the company said. Refining accounted for 65 percent of revenue in the quarter ended June, while the oil and gas business contributed 5 percent, Reliance said in the statement.
Reliance joins SK Energy Co., the biggest South Korean fuel producer, in reporting profit that missed analyst estimates on lower demand for oil products. SK Energy reported net income of 301.4 billion won ($242 million) today, below the median estimate of a 350.8 billion-won profit in a Bloomberg survey of nine analysts.
Global profits from turning crude into oil products fell to an average $4.98 a barrel in the quarter ended June 30 from $8.25 a year earlier, according to BP Plc data.
Sales Agreements
Reliance invested $4.7 billion in the KG-D6 gas field in the Bay of Bengal's Krishna Godavari basin, which started production on April 2. Reliance has signed agreements to sell about 15 million cubic meters a day of the fuel to fertilizer companies and as much as 18 million cubic meters a day to power producers nominated by the government.
Peak production at the field may climb to 80 million cubic meters a day by December, P.M.S. Prasad, president and chief executive officer of Reliance's oil and gas business, said March 27, doubling the availability of gas in the country.
Mukesh Ambani, ranked seventh in the Forbes 2009 listing of world billionaires with a net worth of $19.5 billion, is fighting a lawsuit in the Supreme Court over the supply of gas to Anil Ambani's Reliance Natural Resources Ltd.
Court Hearing
The younger Ambani, ranked 34 on the Forbes list with a net worth of $10.1 billion, wants to enforce a 2005 agreement requiring Reliance Industries to sell gas at 44 percent less than the government-set price. The court has scheduled the next hearing on Sept. 1.
Reliance shares have fallen 15 percent since the Bombay High Court ruled last month that Reliance Industries must honor the accord that split the family empire. The court lifted the ban on gas sales from the KG-D6 field in January.
The agreement requires Mukesh's company to sell the gas to Reliance Natural at $2.34 per million British thermal units. Reliance Industries says the fuel can't be sold below the $4.2 per million Btu level set by the government in 2007.
Selling the gas at $2.34 per million Btu may lower the value of the total gas reserves at KG-D6 by as much as $3 billion to $13 billion, Nomura Financial said in a June 15 research note.
Domestic Sales
Reliance Industries exports most of its refinery products and plans to counter declining overseas demand by selling fuels in India, the second fastest-growing major economy. It started sales to state-run refiners including Indian Oil Corp., the nation's largest, after giving up the export-only status of its first refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat state, capable of processing 33 millions tons of crude a year.
In December, Reliance started operating a 29 million ton-a- year oil refinery adjacent to the older unit. The new plant can produce high-quality fuels using low-grade crude and shift production among products based on market prices.
Refining capacity worldwide will increase by 7.6 million barrels a day between 2008 and 2014, with 54 percent of the new capability in Asia, the International Energy Agency said June 29. Demand for oil is projected to rise by 3.2 million barrels a day, the Paris-based organization said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Rakteem Katakey in New Delhi at rkatakey@bloomberg.net .
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