Tuesday, January 10 2006 20:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Country's largest private sector firm Reliance Industries Ltd today (Jan 10, 2006) posted a lower net profit for the first time in the last ten quarters owing to planned shut down of its Jamnagar refinery.

The company posted a net profit of Rs 1,776 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2005 as against Rs 2,091 crore an year ago, a company said in a release here.

RIL's turnover was at Rs 18,168 crore as against Rs 17,768 crore for corresponding period last fiscal.

"Our refinery was under partial shut down during the months of October and November last year for planned maintenance. As a result, crude process during the third quarter was 6.70 million tonnes compared to 7.95 million tonnes in the trailing quarter," it said.

During the quarter, RIL said, oil discovery notification for the two wells drilled in KG-III-6 block of Krishna Godavari basin was submitted to the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons. The project is under commercial evaluation.

During the quarter, the company's scheme of arrangement to de-merge certain undertakings into four resulting companies was approved by the Bombay High Court.

The RIL shares on de-merged basis will start trading on the stock exchanges from January 18.