POL third quarter earnings up 71pc

KARACHI: Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) third quarter 2015 earnings went up 71 percent to Rs2 billion (earning per share (EPS) Rs8.5) against Rs1.2 billion (EPS Rs5) in the second quarter of the current fiscal.
This result was slightly on the higher side as compared to market consensus estimates, said Bilal Shariff analyst at Topline Research.POL’s net sales shrunk 20 percent QoQ to Rs6.5 billion in the third quarter due to the seven percent decline in Arab Light crude (benchmark for local E&P companies).
The company’s oil The company’s oil volumes declined by 9.4 percent on QoQ basis while gas volumes went down by 8.5p percent in the same period. Negligible exploration cost of Rs17.5mn booked between the January and March period versus Rs2.8bn (dry well booked) in the previous quarter provided considerable support to the company’s bottom-line in the third quarter.
In the nine months of the current fiscal year, the company posted EPS of Rs31.1, down 27 percent, from the EPS of Rs42.7 during the same period last fiscal.Net sales fell by seven percent year on year (YoY) to reach Rs24.4 billion in the nine months of 2015 versus Rs26.2billion in the same period last year.Reported oil production grew by 10 percent YoY, while gas production declined by 11 percent during the nine month period.