ISLAMABAD OGDCL, Pakistan's biggest energy explorer, posted a 20 percent surge in second-quarter profit after production increased.
Net income climbed to Rs23.6 billion ($240 million), or 5.48 rupees a share, in the three months ended Dec. 31 from Rs19.7 billion, or Rs4.57, a year earlier, the Islamabad-based company said in a filing on Wednesday. Sales rose 29 percent to Rs56.8 billion.
"A backlog in development, which is now coming online, as well as fast-track development of recent finds is helping to improve the company's production profile," said Naveed Vakil, director research at AKD Securities Ltd. in Karachi. "The company is also benefiting from the decline in the Pakistani rupee that fell nine percent in the quarter" compared with a year earlier, he said.
Oil and Gas Development benefited from an eight percent increase in crude production to almost 39,000 barrels a day. Gas output also rose as much as 12 percent to 1,150 million cubic feet a day, Vakil said.
Shares for Oil and Gas Development fell 1.3 percent, the most in almost three weeks, to Rs205 at 10:21 am in Karachi. They've gained 7.5 percent this year, compared with a 5.3 percent increase in the benchmark KSE 100 Index. The company plans to pay an interim cash dividend of two rupees a share.