PPL AGM approves 10 percent cash dividend

KARACHI: The 69th Annual General Meeting of Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) was held Monday at local Hotel, Karachi. Members approved financial statements for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 together with the auditor’s report. Final cash dividend of 10 percent on ordinary and convertible preference shares was also approved.
Presiding over the meeting, Chairman, Board of Directors Shamsul Islam shared that the Board managed to align the company with its vision and mission and set strategic goals for value creation and addition. He commended PPL management and staff for their commitment to ensure business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic and thanked the government and shareholders for their support.
MD & CEO PPL Moin Raza Khan shared the company’s progress and achievements during 2019-20. He highlighted that it was a challenging year that we performed difficult explorations which surprise World’s re-known exploration players who are looking for low hanging fruits in a country like Pakistan. He ensures uninterrupted energy supplies to the nation despite of limited resources and unfavourable political environment.
He said that we have large number of hydrocarbon wells which we need to discover but we explored 25 % area only. Khan shared that PPL made two discoveries during the year. A fairly good-size done, western most, at operated MorgandhX-1 in the difficult terrain of Kalat plateau, which is in the deeper part of Baluchistan in the fifth line of hills, the appraisal of which will confirm the reserves size. This discovery has opened a new hydrocarbon play area in the country. The other one was made at Bitro-1 in partner-operated Latif Block.
He updated on PPL’s diversification strategy in the mining sector and shared that commercial production of iron ore commenced from Nokkundi while post-feasibility activities of the Barite-Lead-Zinc project has gained further traction with promising export potential. Acceleration of activities in these areas and further new projects will have significant impact on company’s revenue.
Moving ahead, Khan talked about enhancing production from existing fields and discoveries and continuing aggressive exploration efforts, particularly in frontier basins with significant potential, along with pilot projects for exploring tight and shale gas prospects.
Moreover, he announced PPL recorded its third highest profit-after-tax of Rs 50 billion in its history.