March 6, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 2, 1424

KARACHI, March 5: JCR-VIS credit rating company has assigned medium- to long-term entity rating of single A minus with stable outlook and short-term entity rating of A-2 to Orient Petroleum Pakistan Branch.

Orient Petroleum Inc. (OPI) is incorporated in the US. Locally OPI is a joint venture operator in the field of oil exploration, says a press release. Owing to the nature of the industry, there is a ready market for oil and gas products — the government being a primary buyer.

But “future cash flows of upstream oil and gas companies are dependent on new exploration which is risky and also requires substantial capital outlay — somewhat mitigated in OPI’s case due to the quantum of proven reserves ensuring substantial future cash flows.”