The company's net profit during April to June 1999 in the previous year stood at Rs 135 crore on a turnover of Rs 1,600 crore. The company's gross profit has increased by 162 per cent to Rs 353 crore during the first quarter from Rs 135 crore in the corresponding period the previous year.A company release said that the increased turnover and profits are mainly due to an increase in the volumes in all the segments including natural gas, LPG and Petrochemicals.

While the commissioning of the Pata LPG plant ahead of schedule has helped increase sales in the LPG area, an average capacity utilisation of above 85 per cent at the petrochemical plant helped achieve a ten-fold increase in sales during the first quarter as compared to the same period in the previous year.

Polymer sales increased from 5000 MT to 50000 mt, LPG and other hydrocarbon sales increased from 183,000 mt to 224,000 mt while natural gas volume handled increased to 59.41 mmscmd from 56.50 mmscmd. "During the first quarter, Gail has also made considerable progress in the projects under execution. All the major projects in hand, ie the Jamnagar-Loni LPG pipeline project (Phase 1 capacity 1.7 mmtpa), the Gandhar LPG plant (capacity 207,000 TPA) and the expansion of the gas network in the Krishna-Godavari and Cauveri basins are consistently ahead of schedule", the release said.Gail hopes to complete the LPG pipeline by October - December 2000 against the targeted date of February 2001. It hopes to complete the Gandhar LPG plant by January 2001 almost one year ahead of the original schedule of January 2002.

During the year 1999-2000, Gail recorded a turnover a turnover of Rs 8,415 crore with a net profit Rs 861 crore.