New Delhi: More than a dozen people were killed on Friday after a blast at a gas pipeline operated by state-owned energy company GAIL (India) Ltd in Andhra Pradesh, the company said.

"As per the information received from the GAIL official at the site there are 13-14 casualties," a GAIL spokeswoman said. The victims were local residents and a fire at the scene had been brought under control.

The 18-inch diameter pipeline supplies gas to a power plant operated by Lanco Infratech Ltd. .

Investors are looking to switch to oil explorer Cairn India from gas utility company GAIL (India) Ltd due to the difference in valuation and rising conflict in Iraq, dealers say.

GAIL is currently trading at 11 times of its FY16 earnings while Cairn India is trading at seven times, Thomson Reuters data shows.

"One can make a switch to Cairn as short-term firmness in crude oil prices and depreciating rupee are sentimental booster for the stock," said G. Chokkalingam, founder of Equinomics, a research and fund advisory firm.---- PTI

New Delhi, May 28 :  State-run gas transmission and distribution major GAIL (India) Tuesday reported a 28 percent increase in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2013.

During the quarter, GAIL's net profit increased to Rs. 618 crore against Rs. 483 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous year.

The profit before tax for the fourth quarter increased by 56 percent to Rs. 1,141 crore from Rs. 731 crore.

The company registered 19 percent increase in turnover of Rs. 12,409 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2012-13, as against Rs. 10,455 crore in the corresponding quarter during the last financial year.

The state government of Tamil Nadu has said that it will not allow Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) to lay its pipeline on agricultural land.

The state government said that the company will not be allowed laydown pipeline for the Kochi-Bengaluru GAIL gas pipeline project on agricultural land in the state and said that the company should instead laydown the pipeline along the national highways. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa said that the government will not back any project that affects the people.

The Government on Friday conferred Maharatna status to BHEL and GAIL, in a move that will ensure greater financial as well as functional autonomy for the two public-sector companies.

While a Navratna firm can take investment decisions of up to Rs 1,000 crore on its own, the limit for a Maharatna firm is Rs 5,000 crore. In other words, a Maharatna firm can take investment decisions of up to Rs 5,000 crore without going to the government.

O P Rawat, secretary in the Department of Public Enterprises, said,

India's State-run, GAIL has made its 5-million tonne a year import facility of the Dabhol power plant operational and is now looking into opportunities in shipping.

GAIL hinted that it is considering starting shipping operations in order to capitalize on the long term contracts with parties in Spain and the US. GAIL might be planning to acquire seven liquid gas shipping vessels on hire or outright purchase for its shipping venture.

The government has declared that central public sector units (PSUs) will either have to invest the surplus funds they have or just lose it.

Currently, as many as twenty-five PSUs, including ONGC, GAIL, NTPC, BHEL and SAIL, have surplus cash worth Rs around 2.5 lakh crore. But PSUs are reluctant to make investments as they perceive numerous hurdles to investment plus they don't see the current economic situation very propitious or conducive.

GAIL India Ltd. (GAIL), India's biggest natural gas distributor, is in talks with various companies to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States, a top GAIL official has revealed.

P. K. Jain, finance director of GAIL, said that the company wanted to meet India's high demand for LNG through overseas purchases. As LNG prices in the Unites States are the lowest in more than thirteen years, importing gas from there would be advantageous.

Indian Stock market has continued with its downward move on Thursday. The market has remained in negative zone for most part of the current week. The BSE Sensex was down by 23 points at 17467 and NSE Nifty was flat at 5286.

European markets have opened marginally lower. FTSE and CAC were trading flat during early hours while DAX was down by 0.6%.

India's state-owned energy giant, GAIL (India) Ltd is planning to spend about $1 billion to acquire shale gas assets in North America in order to help meet the growing demand in the emerging Indian economy.

The company's managing director said on Wednesday that the assets in North America will provide a buffer for the planned imports of U. S. liquefied natural gas into the country.

The representatives of the government of Turkmenistan have entered into an important a natural gas deal with Pakistan and India, a move that will boost the possibility of the proposed 1,800-kilometre pipeline across Afghanistan for supply of fuel to the south Asian nations.

Officials from India's state-owned GAIL Ltd and Pakistan's Inter State Gas System agreed to the deal today under which they will receive gas through a pipeline. The pipeline across Afghanistan is expected t pump close to 90 million cubic meters a day.

Sudarshan Sukhani of s2analytics.com has expressed concerns over weakness in Reliance Industries stock. He said that the bluechip company controlled by Mukesh Ambani is already hovering around its 52-week lows. He does not expect the company to see a quick recovery from current lows.

International ratings agency, Moody's has downgraded the local currency rating of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL India but pointed out that the outlook for the rating of GAIL and ONGC was stable.

The press note from the company said that ONGC has been downgraded to Baa1 from A2 while GAIL India has been downgraded from A3 to Baa2. The note also said that GAIL's Baa2 rating is now aligned with its foreign currency rating.

India’s government controlled, Oil and Natural Gas Corp and GAIL India might be planning to join the race to acquire Cove Energy, an Africa-focused gas explorer.

According to some reports, the Indian firms are ready to offer about $2 billion to acquire the explorer firm. The bid is expected to be higher than the $1.77 billion bid by Thai state-controlled oil and gas group PTT as well as Royal Dutch Shell Plc's offer worth $1.6 billion for Cove.

GAIL is increasing its pipeline network from ~7000kms in FY10 to ~14,000 kms by FY14. This should result in increasing their transmission capacity from ~150mmscmd to ~300mmscmd.GAIL with their cross country pipelines should maintain its leadership position in India. We expect their transmission volume to increase with increasing supply in India from domestic and imports.

Gas Authority of India Ltd (GAIL), the largest natural gas midstream player, accounts for three-fourth of transportation volume and more than half of gas marketed in India. GAIL with its size and increasing presence across the value chain of gas becomes the proxy play for booming natural gas sector in India.

Aggressive Capex Plan

GAIL is incurring capex of ~Rs270bn from FY11 to FY13 in their NG transmission, petro-chemical, E&P and CGD business. Post capex phase, the capacity of all their segments should more than double to drive future earnings of GAIL.

Agressive capex plan of ~Rs375bn by FY15

Transmission capacity to double to 300mmscmd and CGD presence in ~50 cities by FY15

Net sales and PAT to grow at a CAGR of 15% and 11%respectively from FY10 to FY13

Concern over slow ramp-up in gas supply, un-economical LNG price in spot market

At CMP of Rs456, GAIL is trading at PER of 14.5x & 13.4x and EV/ EBITDA of 10.3x & 10.7x for FY12E & FY13E respectively

Stock market analysts maintained 'buy' rating on Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) stock to achieve a target that lies between Rs 522-525.

The analyst said that the stock can be purchased at 510with a stop loss of Rs 502.

The stock of the company, on December 22, closed at Rs 508.85 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 520.40 and a low of Rs 393.90 on BSE.

Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 28.23 and 18.03 respectively.

Stock market analyst Hitesh Chotalia has maintained 'buy' rating on GAIL (India) Ltd stock with a short term target of Rs 485.

According to analyst, the interested investors can buy the stock with stop loss of Rs 462.

The stock of the company, on Sep 06, closed at Rs 467.50 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 516.85 and a low of Rs 335 on BSE.

Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 26.58 and 17.77 respectively.

Stock market analyst Salil Sharma is of the view that investors can buy G A I L (India) Limited stock with short term target of Rs 487.

According to analyst, the traders can buy the stock with stop loss of Rs 465.

Today, the shares of the bank opened at Rs 465.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The share price has seen a 52-week high of Rs 561.85 and a low of Rs 280 on BSE.

Current EPS & P/E ratio stood at 24.75 and 19.07 respectively.