GAIL Q4 net profit falls 38 pc on West Asia conflict-related disruption

GAIL (India) Ltd reported a 38 per cent fall in its March quarter profit due to energy supply disruptions related to the war in West Asia.

State-owned gas utility GAIL (India) Ltd on Thursday reported a 38 per cent fall in its March quarter profit, hit hard by energy supply disruptions related to the war in West Asia.

Net profit stood at Rs 1,262.18 crore in January-March, the fourth quarter of the 2025-26 fiscal year, compared with Rs 2,049.03 crore earning a year ago and Rs 1,602.57 crore in the preceding three months, according to a stock exchange filing and company statement.

The Iran war disrupted India's liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from its largest supplier Qatar, since early March.

While revenue from operations declined marginally to Rs 34,797 crore, EBITDA dropped to Rs 2,175 crore in Q4FY26 from Rs 3,335 crore in the preceding quarter, reflecting softer profitability across segments.

The decline was due to the company booking losses of Rs 151.32 crore in natural gas marketing as against a pre-tax earning of Rs 1,203.67 crore a year back. Losses in the petrochemical segments more than doubled to Rs 377.71 crore. These outdid the 48 per cent rise in gas transmission business income to Rs 1,881.58 crore.

For the full fiscal year (2025-26), net profit plunged to Rs 6,968 crore from Rs 11,312 crore in the preceding year. This again was due to weakness in gas marketing and petrochemical segments.

GAIL transmitted lower 118.99 million standard cubic meters per day of gas and 122.18 mmscmd in Q4 and FY26, respectively. Gas marketing volumes in Q4 were lower at 102 mmscmd compared with 104 mmscmd a year ago. For FY26, gas marketing volumes were higher at 104.21 mmsmd against 101.49 mmscmd in the previous year.

''The year was marked by a challenging and complex global backdrop… including the onset of the West Asian crisis towards the later part of the year,'' Chairman and Managing Director Deepak Gupta said, adding that timely policy interventions helped the company maintain operational resilience.

Despite the earnings decline, GAIL said it expanded its pipeline network by about 2,000 km during the year and achieved record LPG transmission of 4.6 million tonnes per annum. The company also continued work on doubling the capacity of the Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline to 6.5 million tonnes per annum.

The board recommended a final dividend of Rs 0.50 per share for FY26, in addition to an interim dividend of Rs 5.00 per share, taking the total payout ratio to 51.9 per cent.

Capital expenditure stood at Rs 9,594 crore, mainly towards pipeline infrastructure, petrochemicals, and investments in subsidiaries and joint ventures.