Services > Company Profile > Director's Reports
GAIL (India) Ltd Miscellaneous
BSE Code
532155
ISIN Demat
INE129A01019
Book Value
151.78
NSE Symbol
GAIL
Div & Yield %
2.36258
Market Cap (Rs Cr.)
40267.8976
P/E
10.18447
EPS
31.17
Face Value
10
GAIL (INDIA) LIMITED

ANNUAL REPORT 2009-2010

DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Dear Shareholders,

On  behalf  of the Board of Directors of your Company, I  am  delighted  to 
present  the  26th  Annual Report of your  'Navratna'  Company  along  with 
Audited Financial Statements for the Financial Year 2009-10.

NATURAL GAS - SUSTAINABLE ENERGY:

Indian economy is poised for high growth as compared to other economies  in 
the  world  thereby  generating energy demand.  As  the  most  environment-
friendly  fossil fuel, natural gas is a major contributor to the clean  and 
green  environment. The establishment of a sustainable energy road  map  is 
one  of  the most pressing needs facing the country. Your Company  for  the 
last  25 years is driving India's gas sector and is all set to take up  the 
challenge of providing this sustainable energy.

Today,  your Company is an integrated energy company along the Natural  Gas 
value  chain with global footprints. Having started as a  gas  transmission 
Company  during  the late eighties, it grew organically over the  years  by 
building  a large network of natural gas trunk Pipelines covering a  length 
of  around 7.8S0 km. Your Company has interests in the business of  natural 
gas,  LPG. Liquid Hydrocarbons and Petrochemicals, the latter being  value-
added  products.  Your  Company has also  diversified  into  Exploration  & 
Production,  City Gas Distribution and is steadily developing its  overseas 
presence. Your Company is spearheading the move to a new era of clean  fuel 
industrialization.

Your  Company  is implementing projects for laying five new  pipelines  and 
augmentation  of two existing pipelines with a total length of about  7,500 
km having an outlay of about Rs. 30,000 crores. This will lead to  doubling 
of pipeline length and transmission capacity in the coming years.

Your Company's present business portfolio includes:

*  7.8S0 km of Natural Gas high pressure trunk pipeline with a capacity  of 
approx. I SO MMSCMD of natural gas across the country.

*  7 LPG Gas Processing Units to produce 1.4 MMTPA of LPG and Other  Liquid 
Hydrocarbons.

*  North India's only gas based integrated Petrochemical complex  at  Pata, 
Uttar Pradesh, with a capacity of producing 4,10,000 TPA of Polymers.

*  1.900  km  of  LPG Transmission pipeline  network  with  a  capacity  to 
transport 38 MMTPA of LPG.

* 27 Oil and Gas Exploration blocks and 1 Coal Bed Methane Block.

* 13,000 km of OFC network offering highly dependable bandwidth for telecom 
service providers.

PERFORMANCE OVERVIEW:

Your  Company  has  recorded  sustained growth  in  all  key  physical  and 
financial  parameters in the Financial Year 2009-10. During the year  2009-
10, the important financial and physical highlights are as under:

Financial:

                                                           (Rs. in crores)
Particulars                                            2009-10     2008-09

Turnover (Net of ED)                                    24,996      23,898

Other income                                               541         797 

Cost of Sales (excluding interest and                   20,327      19,844
Depreciation and including extraordinary     
items) 

Gross Margin                                             5,210       4,851

Interest                                                    70          87

Depreciation                                               562         560

Profit Before Tax                                        4,578       4,204

Provision for Tax                                        1,438       1,400

Profit after Tax                                         3,140       2,804

Appropriations:

Interim Dividend                                           254         507

Proposed Final Dividend                                    698         381

Corporate Dividend Tax                                     159         151

Net Transfer to Bond Redemption Reserve                     (3)         32

Transfer to General Reserve                                314         280

Balance carried forward to Balance Sheet                 1,718       1,453

Physical:

Particulars                                            2009-10     2008-09

Gas Transmission (MMSCMD)                               106.74       83.29

LPG Production (TMTs)                                    1,100       1,088

Pentane/Propane/SBP Solvents/Naptha Production             340         313
(TMTs) 

Polymer Production (TMTs)                                  417         420

LPG Transmission (TMTs)                                  3,164       2,744

Converged Accounting Standards (IFRS) Implementation:

In accordance with the road map given by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, 
Government of India, Accounts are to be prepared on the basis of  converged 
Accounting  Standards  i.e.  Indian  Accounting  Standards  converged  with 
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) w.e.f. 1st April,  2011. 
Accordingly, your Company is taking necessary steps for the  implementation 
of Accounting Standards which are converged with IFRS. Basic IFRS  training 
has also been imparted to concerned senior officials of your Company.  Your 
Company  is  gearing  up to implement the  Converged  Accounting  Standards 
(IFRS) w.e.f. 1st April, 2011 as would be notified by Central Government.

DIVIDEND:

Your  Company  has a consistent track-record of dividend payment.  So  far, 
your   Company  has  disbursed  dividend  of  Rs.  7,370  crores   to   the 
shareholders.

The  Board of Directors of the Company had earlier approved payment  of  an 
interim dividend @20% per equity share (Rs.2/- pet equity share)  amounting 
to  Rs.  253.70 crores paid in the month of December.  2009.  Further,  the 
Board  had  recommended  payment of final dividend @55%  per  equity  share 
(Rs.5.5 per equity share) for the year 2009-10.

With this, the total dividend payment for the fiscal 2009-10 will be at 75% 
(Rs.  7.5 per equity share) amounting to Rs. 951.36 crores on  its  paid-up 
equity capital of Rs. 1,268.48 crores.

CREDIT RATING:

Your  Company has been assigned the highest domestic credit ratings of  AAA 
from  OA  and  CARE which indicates the highest credit  quality  and  rated 
instruments carry the lowest credit risk. The international rating  agency. 
Moody's  international.  Hong  Kong, has reaffirmed  the  Corporate  issuer 
rating  of Baa2 and local currency issuer rating of A3 to your  Company  in 
January  2010. Your Company's international rating from Moody's  is  higher 
than the country's sovereign rating. This rating reflects GAlL's leadership 
position  in natural gas transmission business, the low level  of  business 
risks,  favorable outlook for natural gas trade, its  robust  profitability 
and financial position and strengths derived from the significant sovereign 
ownership.

CORPORATE STRATEGY:

Your Company has developed Strategic Plan for the period 2007-12. The  goal 
set by your Company includes doubling of its bottom line by the year  2011-
12. The strategy developed to realize the set goals is as under:

* Gas Sourcing & Marketing: 

Tying  up  with producers and suppliers for marketing and  transmission  of 
natural  gas on long term and sustainable basis. This is being realized  by 
securing  more gas from various producers, thereby increasing  transmission 
and marketing volumes.

* Gas Transmission: 

Expanding of pipeline infrastructure from 7.850 km to about 12,000 km  with 
the  laying of new pipelines by 2011-12. For achieving this,  execution  of 
various new pipelines at a cost of around Rs.30,000 crores is in progress.

* City Gas: 

Pursuing  of  City Gas distribution opportunities in various parts  of  the 
country.  This  requires  introduction of Compressed Natural  Gas  for  the 
automotive sector and Piped Natural Gas for commercial and domestic use  in 
more  number  of cities in a phased manner. The same is being  realized  by 
participating  in PNGRB's bidding process for various cities and  executing 
city gas projects in those cities.

* Petrochemicals:  

In the area of Petrochemicals business, your Company is examining  possible 
options for expansion of its Petrochemical Complex at Pata and is exploring 
green  field  participation  in  new ventures  in  India  and  abroad.  For 
achieving this, expansion of Petrochemical Complex at Pata is being carried 
out  in phases and participation in new field ventures is being  undertaken 
through equity stake, while also exploring new ventures through JV route.

* E&P: 

Your  Company  also  plans to strengthen E&P capability  and  resources  to 
participate  as a major partner / operator in Domestic E&P /  CBM  bidding. 
This  would  help  in developing E&P as  a  self-sustainable  business  for 
augmenting  additional supplies of natural gas. For this,  investments  are 
being  made in both domestic on-land and off-shore fields, with a  balanced 
portfolio of developmental and exploratory projects.

* Globalization: 

On  the globalization front, the plan is to focus on areas  having  synergy 
with  the  existing businesses by entering into new and emerging  gas  rich 
countries  with  focus on sourcing of gas and participation  in  downstream 
activities.

Your  Company is also in the process of developing Strategy for the  coming 
decade.  Certain  focus  areas of  diversification  have  been  identified, 
besides keeping focus on the core business areas. The strategy for pursuing 
such areas is being developed.

SEGMENTAL REVIEW:

Your  Company  has  been  consistently achieving  the  top-most  all  round 
'Excellent'  rating by the Government of India, since the  commencement  of 
signing  of  the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the  Government  of 
India on performance review. During the year under review, the segment wise 
business performance of the Company is as under:

* Natural Gas Marketing:

Natural  gas  continues to constitute the core business  of  your  Company. 
During  the  year  2009-10, Gas Sales was 81.43 MMSCMD  compared  to  79.06 
MMSCMD  in  the  previous financial year. Major  supplies  of  natural  gas 
includes  fuel to power plants, feedstock for gas based fertilizer  plants. 
Your Company holds around 55% market share in gas marketing in India.

* Natural Gas Transmission:

Your  Company owns and operates a network of about 7,850 km of natural  gas 
high  pressure  trunk  pipeline with a capacity of approx.  150  MMSCMD  of 
natural  gas across the country. The Gas Transmission during the  year  was 
106.74  MMSCMD  compared  to 83.29 MMSCMD in the  previous  financial  year 
registering  a  growth  of 28%. Your Company's share  of  gas  transmission 
business is 72% in India.

* Natural Gas Pipeline Projects:

During  the  financial year, your Company has  completed  commissioning  of 
various  pipelines having a total length of about 700 km, including  Dadri-
Bawana pipeline for supplying gas to Pragati Power Corporation Limited  and 
Chainsa  -  Sultanpur Pipeline, which will facilitate  supplying  about  34 
MMSCMD gas to around 65 customers.

* LPG Transmission:

Your Company is the only Company in India which owns and operates pipelines 
for  exclusive  LPG transmission for third party usage. There are  two  LPG 
Pipeline Transmission Systems with a total length of about 1,900 km.  1.300 
km of which connects the Western and Northern parts of India and 600 km  of 
network is in the Southern part of the country. The LPG transmission system 
has  a  capacity  to  transport upto 3.8 MMTPA  of  LPG.  LPG  transmission 
throughput was about 3.16 million MT in the year 2009-10.

Petrochemicals:

During  2009-10, your Company has produced 4,17,000 MT of polymer and  sold 
4,10.000  MT of polymer and has 21% of overall domestic market share.  Your 
Company  also  introduced  a new pipe grade product  PE-100  grade  in  the 
market.

* LPG & Other Liquid Hydrocarbon Production:

Your  Company has 7 LPG plants in the country. In the year  2009-10,  total 
Liquid  Hydrocarbon  production  was about 1.440 million  MT  which  mainly 
included 1.1 million MT of LPG, 0.18 million MT of Propane, 0.06 million MT 
of  Pentane and balance quantity included other products like  S8P  solvent 
and Naptha.

* Exploration and Production (E&P):

During  the  year 2009-10, hydrocarbon discovery has been made  in  Tripura 
Onland E&P block. Approval of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs  (CCEA) 
has been obtained for investment in Field Development Plan for A-1 and  A-3 
E&P blocks in Myanmar and also for participation in the associated  onshore 
midstream  pipeline. Development of the blocks A-1 and A-3 is  in  progress 
and  the Gas production is expected to start from May, 2013. The  Petroteum 
Exploration  License  for  Cauvery Onland E&P block  has  been  granted  by 
Government  of Tamil Nadu, where your Company is an Operator and  the  said 
block  has  been  awarded  during  NELP-VH  bidding  round.  The  petroleum 
operation of the aforesaid block has already commenced.

Your  Company has participating interest in 27 E&P blocks and 1 CBM  block. 
Out of these, 24 E&P blocks are in India and 3 blocks are overseas (A-1 and 
A-3  blocks in Myanmar and Block 56 in Oman). The on land block  in  Cambay 
basin  is generating revenue and the revenue generated during the  year  is 
Rs. 32 25 crores.

Your  Company is operating two onland E&P blocks viz. Rajasthan Onland  and 
Cauvery Onland.

* Coal Bed Methane:

Your  Company  has participating interest in 1 Coal Bed methane  block  (in 
Chattisgarh  state). The block is in first exploration  stage.  Exploration 
activities like drilling of core holes have been completed and drilling  of 
test wells is planned.

* Telecommunications:

Leveraging  on  its pipeline network, your Company has built  up  a  strong 
Optic  Fibre  Cable (OFC) network for leasing of bandwidth as  a  carriers' 
carrier. Your Company's telecom business unit - 'GAILTEL has  approximately 
13.000 km of OFC network.

SEGMENTAL OUTLOOK:

* Natural Gas:

Major  focus for your Company is to maintain its dominant position  in  the 
gas  business,  especially  the  transmission  segment  and  continue   the 
relationship   with  existing  customers  and  also  add  more   customers. 
Therefore,  your  Company  is  building about  7,500  km  of  pipelines  to 
transport and supply natural gas to various customers in Power, Fertiliser, 
Refinery,  Industries,  CGD projects etc. These would include  large  trunk 
pipelines,  along with smaller pipelines which would  provide  connectivity 
among trunk lines to form a grid.

* Natural Gas Pipeline Projects:

Your  Company is executing various pipeline projects for about 7.500 km  of 
pipeline  passing through 16 states, at an approved project cost of  around 
Rs   30,000  crores.  When  these  pipelines  are  commissioned,  the   gas 
transmission capacity is expected to increase from 150 MMSCMD at present to 
around 300 MMSCMD.

Your Company has received approval / authorization in the year 2007 for the 
following  five new natural gas pipelines in the country from the  Ministry 
of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), covering a length of around 5,500 km:

*  610  km  Dadri - Bawana - Nangal pipeline  passing  through  UP.  Delhi, 
Haryana and Punjab.

*   350 km Chainsa - Gurgaon - Jhajjhar - Hissar pipeline  passing  through 
Haryana and Rajasthan.

*   2050  km  Jagdishpur - Haldia pipeline  passing  through  West  Bengal, 
Jharkhand. Bihar and U.P.

*    1389  km Dabhol - Bangalore pipeline passing through  Maharashtra  and 
Karnataka.

*   1114  km Kochi - Kanjirkkod - Bangalore /  Mangalore  pipeline  passing 
through Kerala. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

In addition to these, your Company will be augmenting the capacities or its 
two existing pipelines, namely, Dahej (Gujarat) - Vijaipur (Madhya Pradesh) 
pipeline  and Vijaipur (Madhya Pradesh) - Dadri (Uttar  Pradesh)  pipeline, 
having a length of around 2,000 km.

Your  Company has taken initiatives to transparently execute  the  projects 
without any time & cost over-runs through meticulous Project Monitoring.

* Petrochemicals:

Your  Company owns and operates a gas based integrated petrochemical  plant 
at  Pata,  Uttar  Pradesh, with a capacity of  producing  4,10,000  TPA  of 
Polymers i.e., HOPE and LLDPE. Your Company is in the process of installing 
an additional gas cracking furnace, after which, the capacity will  further 
increase up to 430.000TPA.

Your  Company  is  currently in the process of setting up  a  2.80.000  TPA 
Petrochemical  Plant in Assam, at an investment of about Rs.  5,460  crores 
through its subsidiary. Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL).

* Gas Sourcing:

Your  Company  continues  to  have focus  on  securing  gas  supplies  from 
international  markets.  LNG  and  trans-national  pipelines  are  the  two 
prevalent modes of cross border gas trade and your Company has been  making 
efforts to bring more natural gas into the country.

* Wind Energy:

Your Company has successfully commissioned a wind energy project of 4.5  MW 
capacity at Sinoi (Anjar), District Bhuj in Gujarat, at a cost of Rs.  27.7 
cores,  in March, 2010. The generated power is fully utilized  for  captive 
consumption  at your Company's installations in Gujarat,  namely,  Gandhar, 
Kandla and Samakhali.

Based on the successful commissioning and satisfactory performance of  this 
project, your Company is planning to go for commercial wind energy projects 
in different states.

BUSINESS INITIATIVES: 

* Global:

Your  Company is continuously scouting for overseas business  opportunities 
in the natural gas sector. The purpose is to have long term growth in  core 
business  areas  and  also  to  source natural  gas  to  meet  the  growing 
requirements of the Indian market.

Your  Company  aims  to target the African market owing  to  its  high  gas 
reserves  and  nascent gas infrastructure. Your Company is a  part  of  the 
consortium  which includes Shell. Total. PTT & other companies for  bidding 
in the Nigerian Gas Master Plan (NGMP) project in Nigeria. Your Company  is 
also  looking for opportunities in countries like Ghana, Egypt,  Papua  New 
Guinea  (PNG),  Qatar  etc. Your Company has signed an  MOU  with  Egyptian 
Natural Gas Holdings Company (EGAS) for cooperation in gas sector  projects 
in Egypt. Your Company is also shortly opening an office