Mari Petroleum’s profit surges 42% to Rs5.1 billion

KARACHI: Mari Petroleum Company Limited registered a profit of Rs5.1 billion in the first quarter of financial year 2018-19, which was 42.3% higher than the earnings for the same period of last year.

Earnings per share also surged by 42.3% and amounted to Rs42.4 for the Jul-Sept 2018 quarter compared to Rs29.79 last year.

Revenues of the company jumped 53.6% for the quarter to Rs14.3 billion. According to Taurus Securities, the hike is due to Mari gas field’s unwinding of base price discount, rise in oil prices, rupee depreciation and premium pricing on higher-than-benchmark gas flows from the field.



“Exploration costs surpassed our expectations and stood at Rs1.7 billion in the quarter, up by 5.83 times year-on-year,” the report said. “We think it is due to higher prospecting expenditures and expenses on the Qamar X-1 dry well.” The effective tax rate for the company rose by 420 basis points to 33.2% for the quarter compared to 29% for the same period last year.

On a sequential basis, after-tax profit was up by 12% on a quarter-on-quarter basis due to higher revenues amid higher pricing and lower operating expenses and exploration costs.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2018.

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