Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) has emerged out of the last quarter, which ended on December 31, 2014, with a relatively less evaporation of profit than what one of its key competitors experienced due to the drop in oil price.
Net profit was down 39.7% to Rs8.45 billion compared to the same period a year ago mainly because of oil, which has come to contribute substantially to the Karachi-based company’s bottom-line over the years, it announced on Thursday.
Just a day earlier, Pakistan Oilfields (POL) reported a 64.2% decline in profit.
Even an increase in oil production to 14,600 barrels per day (bpd) was not able to stop the price impact, wrote Taurus Securities’ Research Analyst Syed Sufyan Subhani in a report.
A 4% decline in gas output was also a cause for the slide in profit and sales.
PPL’s field expenditure, which is money spent on exploration and raising petroleum production from wells, increased 28.4% to Rs8.7 billion, indicating its continued aggressive approach to boost dwindling reserves.
By June 2014, the end of last fiscal year, PPL’s average oil output was 12,701 bpd, which added 31% to its full-year net sales of Rs119.8 billion.
PPL’s board also announced a dividend of Rs4.5 per share for the quarter.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 30th, 2015.
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How can oil profit fall when the govt in press conferences claims demand has risen to an unprecedented heights that is 30 percent, which was thought to be a source of acute petrol shortages in the country. Petrol profit, as ET posted, if has fallen the oil dependent sectors too should show frozen results. A very discouraging report indeed.