KARACHI, Jan 27: The Board of Directors of Shell Pakistan Limited (SPL) has approved the payment of an interim dividend at Rs9.50 per share for the year ending June 2003.

The board of directors met on December 27 at Shell House to review the financial statements for the half year and quarter ended December 31, 2002.

SPL also declared a half yearly profit of Rs848 million and sales stood at Rs44 billion as compared to Rs40 billion in July-December 2001.

According to a statement, SPL said that the results reflect the robustness and growth of the company.

Growth was achieved in lubricants, jet fuel as well as better than industry results for high speed diesel. Mogas remained under pressure from CNG and smuggled products.

During the quarter, the company disbursed the final tranche of its investment, amounting to Rs1.188 billion, in the White Oil Pipeline Project (WOPP), thereby raising cumulative investment of the company in the project to Rs1.871 billion.

Shell is contributing over Rs27 billion annually to the national exchequer and employs 25,000 workers.