GAIL to pump in Rs 25,000 cr over 5 yrs on pipeline, E

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) State-run GAIL (India) Ltd today said it will invest about Rs 25,000 crore on pipeline and exploration projects during the next five years, a part of which may be raised through sale of its stake in ONGC.

Out of the planned capex, Rs 10,000 crore will be funded through internal accruals and the rest Rs 15,000 crore will be borrowed from domestic and overseas market, company's Director (Finance) R K Goel told reporters here.

''The company's current debt-equity ratio of 0.12:1 will help leverage debt for the expansion projects,'' he said.

GAIL will invest Rs 2,744 crore during this fiscal on pipeline and exploration projects and Rs 6,000 crore for the same in 2008-09.

It plans to borrow Rs 2,500 crore by the end of the current fiscal to fund its expansion projects over the next two years, Mr Goel added.

The borrowings from the domestic and overseas markets will be in the ratio of 40:60 and the company is evaluating all other options, he added.

For fiscal 2008-09, GAIL will invest Rs 6,000 crore in its projects and the raised funds will meet the project fundings for the next 2-3 years.

The company plans to commission five new pipelines of around 5,000 km this year with an estimated investment of Rs 18,000 crore which would increase the capacity to 280 million metric standard cubic metres a day (MMSCMD) from the current capacity of 130 MMSCMD, company's Chairman U D Choubey said.

''Of the planned expenditure, Rs 1,855 crore will be invested in pipeline projects, Rs 500 crore in E&P projects, Rs 146 crore in petrochemicals, Rs 94 crore in business development and the rest will be invested in projects realted to city gas, telecom, coal gasification,'' Mr Choubey said.

GAIL is expanding the capacity of the Pata Petrochemical plant to 4,10,000 tonnes per annum from the present 3,10,000 tonnes per annum and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Meanwhile, the company's net profit for the financial year 2006-07 went up marginally to Rs 2,387 crore from Rs 2,310 crore in the previous year, while its Q4 Profit After Tax (PAT) sky-rocketed to 67 per cent due to an overall increase in the natural gas business, polymer sales and LPG transmission.

UNI