Nakilat second quarter profit jumps 5.9 percent amid cost curbs

Nakilat second quarter profit jumps 5.9 percent amid cost curbs

Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), the world's largest shipper of liquefied natural gas (LNG), on Wednesday reported a 5.9 percent jump in quarterly profit partly thanks to better cost control.

July 18, 2012 5:24 by Reuters

Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), the world’s largest shipper of liquefied natural gas (LNG), on Wednesday reported a 5.9 percent jump in quarterly profit partly thanks to better cost control.

Nakilat posted second quarter profit of 204.1 million riyals ($56.1 million) according to Reuters calculations, compared with 192.8 million in the same period last year.

One analyst forecast a quarterly profit of 214.57 million riyals, in a Reuters poll.

“Our net operating income was up, and we’re continuing to manage expenses quite well,” Managing Director Muhammed Ghannam told Reuters by telephone.

The company made a first-half net profit of 380.6 million riyals after a 4.6 million riyal loss on a derivative instrument from a joint venture, it said in a statement posted on the bourse website, without giving further details.

Nakilat said in October that a decision on whether to convert 45 of its largest tankers to burn natural gas instead of oil continued to be under consideration but would not affect the company financially.

It is expected to approve a $1 billion overhaul of the tankers, prompted by an unexpected fall in natural gas prices against the price of oil in recent years, senior industry sources told Reuters last year. The work would take place through 2015.

Nakilat shares closed down 0.13 percent at 15.7 riyals on Wednesday before the results were announced.

($1=3.638 Qatari riyals) (Reporting By Regan Doherty; Editing by Amran Abocar)