KARACHI: The Board of Directors of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) in its meeting held on April 26, 2021 at Islamabad approved the financial results for nine months ended March 31, 2021 of fiscal year 2020-21. The Company’s net sales clocked at Rs176.382 billion translating to a profit after tax of Rs66.35 billion and earnings per share of Rs15.43 for the nine months ended March 31, 2021.
The Board of Directors also approved the third interim cash dividend @ Rs1.80 per share in addition to earlier interim dividends of Rs3.60 per share. The Company paid Rs11.153 billion as royalty which will be ultimately be transferred to the Provinces besides Rs41.771 billion in the form of taxes during the nine month period.
During the period under review, the Company acquired 2,192 line kilometers of 2D and 387 kilometers of 3D seismic data. On the drilling front, OGDCL spud 13 wells. The average daily net production of OGDCL for the period under review stood at 36,836 barrels of oil per day, 865 million MMCFD of gas and 802 tons of LPG per day.
The Company maintained its profitability despite challenges due to outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. OGDCL continues to be the market leader in the E&P sector and plans to accelerate its exploratory activities in the future as seismic work in newly awarded blocks will be undertaken. OGDCL won ten new exploration licenses with operatorship and one block as a joint venture partner. New projects and business development opportunities are being evaluated. OGDCL has also participated in an offshore opportunity in Abu Dhabi through a consortium and the proposal is at an advanced stage of consideration with the UAE authorities. Board of Directors underscored the importance of aggressive exploratory efforts to achieve optimum reserve replacement ratio for long-term sustainability.
Board of Directors emphasized compliance with Government advisories on Covid-19 precautionary measures especially NCOC guidelines. It was noted with satisfaction that effective communication was in place to coordinate efforts in this regard including work from home arrangement, vaccination, medical assistance advice and regular monitoring of workplace facilities. —PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021