Pakistan Oil & Gas Development Net Profit Rises on Higher Rates

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Pakistan Oil & Gas Development Net Profit Rises on Higher Rates - Bloomberg

Oil & Gas Development Co. (OGDC), Pakistan’s biggest energy explorer, posted a 32 percent gain in second-quarter profit after global crude prices rose.

Net income rose to 19.7 billion rupees ($216 million), or 4.57 rupees a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 from 14.9 billion rupees, or 3.46 rupees, a year earlier, the Islamabad- based company said in stock exchange filing today. Sales rose 5.5 percent to 43.9 billion rupees.

Crude rose 29 percent to $109 a barrel in the second quarter from a year ago, according to Burj Capital Pakistan in Karachi.

The explorer expects to raise output by as much as 20 percent in the year through June after adding resources in the northwest of the country. An increase in domestic energy supplies may help boost South Asia’s second-biggest economy, which has been hurt by terrorism and dwindling foreign investment.

Oil & Gas Development, which has risen 10.3 percent this year, fell as much as 2.2 percent on the Karachi Stock Exchange after the announcement. The share fell because the company was forecast to announce earnings per share of 4.70 rupees, said Azfar Naseem, research analyst at Elixir Securities Ltd. in Karachi.

The company plans to pay a mid-year cash dividend of 1.50 rupees a share, according to the statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Khurrum Anis in Karachi at kkhan14@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Amit Prakash at aprakash1@bloomberg.net