Demerara Waves Online News- Guyana Riding on the Crest of Truth
Last Updated on Friday, 30 May 2014, 23:46 by GxMedia
GPL Divisional Director (Finance) Loris Nathoo
The information was shared at a public forum on Friday which also examined first quarter figures for this year.
Generation costs fell from $27.1B to $25.7B according to the information presented by Divisional Director – Finance, Loris Nathoo. He stated that net income before expenses climbed by $3B to $4.9B and upon deduction their net loss from operations decreased from $4.7B to $2.9B.
Explaining the reduction in the generation costs Nathoo said that fuel bill declined from $24.1B in 2012 to $22.9B last year as a result of generator conversion and falling prices. Fuel costs are GPL’s largest expense accounting for 75 percent of the 2013 revenues. Eighty-three percent of revenue had been spent on fuel the previous year.
Nathoo said the primary reason for the savings was the increase in the use of heavy fuel oil following the conversion of the more operationally expensive diesel generators.
The director noted that last year’s growth in revenue continued into 2014 as reflected in the first quarter figures when compared to the same period last year. That figure is 4.6 percent with net loss pegged at $161M as compared to $1.15B for the same period the previous year.
The fuel bill so far this year has amounted to some $4.8B of the $7.6B realised to date also representing a decrease from the 2013 figures.
Meanwhile, Nathoo revealed that they purchased some 52,637MW from GuySuCo at a cost of $278M. First quarter purchases are below those of the corresponding period last year as a result of the sugar corporation rescheduling its crops, with those figures being $69B as compared to $84B.
Nathoo said GPL’s total losses in 2012 were some $7B with operating losses accounting for about $4.7B of that amount. According to the finance director, they still had some distance to go towards breaking even but they were on their way.