Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) is currently in discussions with the government and Petronas over its gas shortage issue.

Its president and chief executive officer Che Khalib Mohamad Noh said intense discussions are going on with all the stakeholders and TNB hopes to quickly resolve the issue.

“Honestly, we are concerned with the supply that Petronas can provide. We know Petronas has done their level best,” he told reporters after announcing TNB’s results for the fourth quarter and financial year ended Aug 31, 2011 in Kuala Lumpur today.

NONE Che Khalib ( left ) said the discussions also include compensation from Petronas.

“For the industry we think it’s only appropriate that Petronas assists in relieving the burden on the industry.

“We don’t think the industry can sustain the current low gas volume as well as sustaining the additional cost TNB and the industry have to incur as the result of shortages of gas,” he said.

Che Khalib said TNB’s results for the last two quarters were distorted by the higher fuel cost that it had to incur.

“It’s too early for us to say. The first two months we’re still in the red. As long as there is a shortage of gas, we can expect similar results for the next quarter.

“We have to deal with higher fuel cost which is five times higher than gas,” he said.

Che Khalib said demand is projected to increase by 4.0 percent next year in line with government’s GDP projection of between five to six percent next year.

“We’re quite confident. Demand growth for the last three months was 3.9 percent. Demand growth last year was quite stable. That should be achievable,” he said.

TNB posted RM453.9 million net loss in the fourth quarter ended Aug 31, 2011 compared to RM440.2 million net loss in the previous quarter due to higher power generation costs from utilisation of oil and distillates.

The impact of the tariff adjustment was not sufficient to cover the higher fuel costs in that quarter.

- Bernama