PPL seeks offshore drilling sites

Pakistan Petroleum Limited is pursuing the government for a share in new offshore sites for exploration activities.

KARACHI: The Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) is pursuing the government for a share in new offshore sites for exploration activities. Acknowledging that reserves from the Sui gas field are depleting, PPL’s Managing Director and CEO Khalid Rahman said: “Our focus has to be on exploring new sites to replenish reserves.” Rahman was fielding questions from the press on Wednesday after the annual general meeting (AGM) of PPL, where shareholders approved the issuance of 50 per cent cash dividend and 20 per cent bonus shares.

The AGM also approved appointment of members to the company’s board of directors for a three-year term. Responding to questions, Khalid Rahman said that “due to active exploration efforts, the total production of the company is not falling”. He stressed that the company has shifted its focus from relying on joint ventures to exploration activities in PPL operated fields. Rahman conceded that sales revenue and profits declined due to “lower crude prices”. He also revealed that about Rs20 billion of dues to the company are outstanding due to the inter-corporate debt issue stressing that “PPL’s dues must be settled”.

Rahman said that “there was total inactivity in the past four decades due to reliance on sui gas and prices also made new projects unfeasible” but he added that the company has now resolved to renew exploration efforts and pointed out that “significant discoveries have already been made in four regions”. Rahman assured that “strategically the company remained on course, the main features of which were optimizing production and reserves replacement, enhancing exploration activities and embedding good governance”.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.