New Delhi, Nov 11 (IANS): Gas exploration and production company Great Eastern Energy Corporation Ltd (GEECL) has seen a sharp drop in its revenue for the first half of current fiscal year (FY21) due to a drop in sales during the Covid-19 induced lockdown in May part of April-June quarter.
As per the company's financial statement, the revenue dropped from a level of $19.21 million in H1 of FY20 to just about $12.25 million in the April-September period of FY21. During the period under review, the company sold 7.26 mmscfd of gas, down from 10.91 mmscfd of gas it sold in the same period last year.
The company net profit (pre mark to market/deferred tax expense) also dropped from $3.74 million in first six months of last fiscal to 0.82 million in H1 of FY21. But lower sales and prices also helped the company to reduce its debt and improve its debt to equity ratio.
The company said that the lockdown had adverse impact on its sales in current fiscal but the danger was minimised as it optimised costs and increased efficiencies.
"The Covid-19 pandemic and associated economic slowdown globally and in India has created severe challenges across the spectrum. Encouragingly, the Company's business and balance sheet has been able to comfortably withstand the severe impact of these events," Managing Director & CEO Prashant Modi said.
"With the steps taken by the government to accelerate the growth of the Indian economy due to Covid-19, demand for hydrocarbons in India has grown post June 2020," he added.
A big push to company sales would come with the completion of GAIL (India) Ltd's upcoming "Jagdishpur - Haldia & Bokaro - Dhamra pipeline" by February 2021. This pipeline will provide the company with the opportunity to expand its customer base and sales significantly by accessing the huge market of Kolkata and also to the wider West Bengal.
Also on the positive is the growing demand in India. The country's LNG imports for September 2020 were 5 per cent higher than September 2019 and the cumulative imports for H1 FY 2020-21 were three per cent lower than period of H1 FY 2019-20.