Pakistan Oilfields Limited (POL) on Wednesday announced its consolidated earnings of Rs 2.3 billion in the quarter ended September 30, 2016 as compared to Rs 1.2 billion earned in the corresponding quarter in 2015. The company's earning per share surged to Rs 9.6 in this quarter against Rs 5.2 in the same quarter last year. According to the financial results, POL's net sales remained almost flat at Rs 5.9 billion.
POL's oil volume improved by around 7 percent on year-on-year basis mainly due to low base effect an analyst at Topline Securities said. To recall, Makori East field (around 45 percent of POL's total oil production) witnessed technical issues during the first quarter of FY16, which hampered POL's total oil production. Gas volumes of the company remained almost flat at around 71mmcfd in the first quarter of FY17.
Pre-tax consolidated earnings of the company improved significantly in this quarter, up 118 percent on year-on-year basis primarily on the back of lower exploration charges and increase in profits from associates. In this quarter, POL booked exploration expense of Rs 64 million against Rs 1,135 million in the same quarter in FY16. These significantly lower charges were due to higher base effect. To recall, POL incurred exploration cost of Rs 1,126 million in the first quarter of FY16, on account of Margala North dry well.
Profits from associates (National Refinery and Attock Petroleum) increased to Rs 510 million in this quarter against Rs 151 million in the same period last year. Despite 118 percent jump in its pre-tax profits, POL's net earnings grew by 86 percent. This was owing to higher effective tax rate, up 14ppts to 18.4 percent in the first quarter of FY17. On quarter-to-quarter basis, net sales of the company declined by 10 percent while its net earnings improved by 7 percent in the first quarter of FY17