* Nakilat Q2 net profit up almost three-fold
* Rise stems from core shipping business (Adds more details, background)
By John Irish
DUBAI, July 28 (Reuters) - Qatar Gas Transport Co (Nakilat), the world's largest shipper of liquefied natural gas (LNG), saw profit rise almost three-fold in the second-quarter on revenues from its core shipping business.
Net income in the three months to June rose to 179.29 million riyals ($49.26 million), up 252.2 percent from the year earlier period, according to Reuters calculations, based on first-half earnings released on Tuesday.
Qatar, the world's top LNG exporter, plans to double its LNG output this year to 62 million tonnes per year as it brings online the world's largest LNG trains, and to hit a target of 77 million tonnes per year in 2010.
Nakilat began a $6.8 billion financing programme in 2006 to fund the building of 25 LNG ships at South Korean shipyards which will be used to help Qatar reach its LNG targets.
According to half year results on the Qatar Exchange website, revenue from Nakilat's wholly-owned vessels was almost 500 million riyals from nothing in the year earlier period, although interest payments rose to 260.2 million riyals from zero in the first half of 2008.
In June Nakilat raised $949 million to fund new ships, the last tranche of the $6.8 billion financing programme.
The firm has received 14 of the 25 ships, and expects to take delivery of eight more by the end of 2009 and three in 2010. Besides those 25 ships, Nakilat has stakes in 29 others.
The firm made a net profit of 233.59 million riyals in the first six months of the year compared with 94.53 million riyals a year earlier, the firm said in a statement, without offering a breakdown of quarterly data.
Reuters calculated the quarterly profit based on previous financial statements. Nakilat reported net profit of 50.9 million riyals in the second quarter of 2008 and 54.11 million riyals in the first quarter of this year.
The quarterly earnings were above the 112.5 million riyal profit forecast of Prime Emirates in a Reuters survey.
Shares of Nakilat closed 0.82 percent up at 24.3 riyals on Tuesday and have gained almost 13 percent this year, outperforming the main index, which is down more than 16 percent.
Egyptian investment bank EFG-Hermes upgraded the stock in June to short-term/long-term buy and raised its price target to 38.6 riyals. (Additional reporting by Jason Benham; Editing by Inal Ersan and Rupert Winchester)