KARACHI, Aug 17: As the result season draws to a close, the last of the heavyweights in the oil and gas exploration sector have started to unveil financial figures. Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC) made public its results on Tuesday, while Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) —the other giant in the sector — came forward with the accounts for the year ended June 30, 2006 on Thursday.Investors are now awaiting anxiously to see what comes out of the corporate bag of the two major commercial banks: National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) which is to announce numbers on Saturday (Aug 19) and Muslim Commercial Bank (MCB), scheduled to hold the board meeting on Aug 24.

The financial results released by PPL on Thursday were generally believed to be in line with market expectations. The company posted profit after tax amounting to Rs13.4 billion, representing earning per share (eps) at Rs19.54 and a profitability growth of 55 per cent over the earlier year’s net earnings of Rs8.6 billion (eps at Rs12.57).

The board declared a final cash dividend at Rs5.50 (55 per cent) per share in addition to the interim cash already paid at Rs3.50 (35pc), took the cumulative payout to Rs9.0 (90pc) for the year. Several analysts were visualising eps to fall within the range of Rs18.70 to Rs19.58, which was about what it came to be. The difficulty in forecast of an accurate figure for the year under review could be due to a substantially lower eps of Rs12.57 the previous year.

On Thursday, the share in PPL was most widely traded at the Karachi Stock Exchange with the highest volume of 25 million shares. The price of the stock closed 5 paisa down to Rs256.25.

The company announcement read out at the stock exchange at 11:04am on Thursday, just two minutes after its receipt, stated: “Of the profit for the year ended June 30, 2006, an appropriation of Rs1 billion (2004-05 — Rs500m) and Rs2bn (2004-05 — Rs1.5bn) had been made towards ‘insurance reserve’ and ‘asset acquisition reserve’, respectively”. Net sales for the latest year ended June 30, 2006 stood at Rs31.8 billion, representing growth of 36 per cent from the earlier year’s net sales at Rs23.3 billion.

Analyst Faraz Farooq observed that the growth in earnings mainly ensued from the phased increase in wellhead prices of major fields -- Sui and Kandhkot -- which represented 81pc share in company’s gross gas production. Average wellhead price of those two fields was up by 37pc to Rs71.3/mmbtu in FY06. “As per GPA 2002, Sui and Kandhkot fields’ wellhead gas prices would increase to 50pc of applicable prices for other fields’ wellhead price under latest Petroleum Policy, by January 2007”, the analyst said.

Moreover, average wellhead price of Qadirpur in which the company holds 7pc interest, rose by 37pc. Wellhead gas prices for Sawan and Miano gas fields also increased by 14 to 16pc during FY06. All of that put positive impact on both the top line as well as bottom line growth.

During the year under review, PPL’s combined oil and gas production edged higher by 5pc. Oil production showed a growth of 11pc to 18,000 barrels per day (bpd) in FY06. Gas production during the year stood at 1,002 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), showing an increase of 5pc over the earlier year.

With rising interest rates and increasing revenues, ‘other income’ was expected to have remained robust. The figure does not appear separately in the results sheet released at the stock exchanges. It could therefore be included in “other operating income”, which rose to Rs1.5bn, from Rs546m the previous year. That and the prospects and possibilities ahead for the company and the oil and gas sector would surely be discussed by the board with shareholders at the annual general meeting (AGM) scheduled to be held on October 30.