FY23 has been a year of high prices, which meant growth in oil and gas E&P sector earnings. And then the local currency depreciation added to earnings growth. At the same time the year has not been good in terms of hydrocarbon production. Mari Petroleum Company Limited (PSX: MARI) announced its financial performance for FY23 with impressive growth in earnings of around 53 percent in net sales and an increase of 70 percent year-on-year in the bottomline.

The topline growth in the latest quarter 4QFY23 stood at the highest ever quarterly revenue due to higher offtakes from Mari gas field and high wellhead gas prices and PKR/USD parity. The bottomline was up by 183 percent year-on-year.

Mari’s net sales clocked in at Rs145 billion for the FY23, which was primarily driven by 28 percent devaluation of domestic currency. Also the revenues growth was driven by higher prices. There was a 61 percent year-on-year jump in wellhead price of Mari Gas Field. While production from Mari gas field during the 4QFY23 was up, overall the production of hydrocarbons remained weak due to annual turnarounds of EFERT and FFC plants that hampered the offtakes from MARI field. Also, the leakages at FFC’s plant and damaged SSGC pipeline in Bolan area during the early months of FY23 were factors for lower production volumes.

Besides the topline growth in FY23, MARI’s bottomline also benefitted from significant growth in finance income due to higher income on cash as well as colossal exchange gains. Also the exploration cost grew by 47 percent year-on-year in FY23 due to three dry wells incurred during the period.