The 65th Annual General Meeting of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) was held on Tuesday at local hotel, Karachi. The members approved the financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016 together with the auditor's report thereon as well as a final cash dividend of 35 percent on ordinary shares and 7.5 percent on convertible preference shares.
Welcoming the guests, Chairman of the meeting, Aftab Nabi provided an overview of the year whereby the company's exploration and production portfolio was optimised to achieve several milestones against the backdrop of low oil prices. He appreciated the management and staff's efforts in achieving set targets. MD and CEO Syed Wamiq Bokhari shared that PPL had a successful 2015-2016 as the company achieved a string of historic records during the year, notably drilling of 23 wells in record time, with 6 discoveries in operated and 4 in partner-operated blocks. In addition, 126 percent reserve replacement ratio was reached as well as completion of the first-ever international 3D seismic acquisition in Block 8, Iraq. This was achieved while benefiting from the momentum initiated during 2015, especially moving to an asset-based hybrid set-up, he added.
Bokhari was pleased to highlight the reversal of the production decline trend with net production crossing the 1 Bcfpde-mark in November 2016. He also mentioned that the company has invested significantly in technical and leadership capacity building of its staff along with setting up of a dedicated training facility in Karachi leading to a record number of trainings, including those by foreign facilitators.
As part of future strategy, he stressed on taking forward production enhancement plan for existing fields as well as bringing new discoveries on line on a fast-track basis, especially newly discovered tight gas reserves, utilising latest technology along with special focus on exploration in frontier areas.