Impact of Covid-19 and depressed oil prices have been the key headwinds for the oil and gas exploration and production companies in 2020. Overall, the domestic oil and gas production has remained sluggish in FY20 with fewer discoveries amid depleting reserves.

Mari Petroleum Company Limited (PSX: MARI) in its recently announced annual result shows an increase of around 8 percent in gross sales. Adjusted for taxes, cess and duties, the net revenue of the company was up by almost 21 percent year-on-year. Growth in the company’s revenues was solely due to the increase of around 20 percent in gas wellhead prices and PKR depreciation of around 15 percent in FY20. Oil and gas production by MARI were down by 8 and 2 percent year-on-year respectively during the year. The decline in volumes in the last quarter (4QFY20) stood around 3 percent and 1 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The E&P company’s bottomline grew by over 24 percent year-on-year. Where revenue growth helped boost earnings for Mari Petroleum, higher exploration and production expenses during the year contained the growth. The company witnessed 2.5 times increase in exploration and prospecting expenses, which are likely due to seismic data acquisition and some dry well in the last quarter. According to a research note by Topline Securities, company has recorded a dry well Zarbab (from Hala Block), where company has a 35 percent stake. The company announced a final cash dividend of Rs2 per share in addition to Rs4 pers hare interim dividend already paid.