Pakistan’s largest oil and gas producer reports a 53% quarterly profit jump, but production curtailments continue to cost billions as the company pursues shale gas, lithium and new energy projects.
KARACHI, Nov 5 (Focus Pakistan) - Count 100 barrels of crude pulled from Pakistani soil between July and September and 55 of them belong to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL). Last fiscal year it was 51, company figures show.
In those same three months, curtailments cost OGDCL around Rs9.7 billion in lost sales. Profit rose regardless. Higher oil prices and stronger output lifted OGDCL’s quarterly profit after tax about 53 per cent to Rs58.51 billion.
Those two numbers sum up the country’s largest oil and gas producer. It can produce more than it gets to sell.
Sales hit Rs132.42 billion, up 38 per cent on the Rs96.19 billion of July-September 2025. Each share earned Rs13.60, up from Rs8.91. The board declared a Rs5 dividend, OGDCL’s highest ever for a first quarter.
Curtailments kept 1,254 barrels of oil off the market every day. Gas took a bigger knock, 94 million cubic feet daily, and LPG lost five tonnes. That shaved Rs1.20 off earnings per share. Twelve months ago the damage ran to Rs2.41 a share and Rs19.3 billion in sales.
OGDCL also estimates a Rs33.2 billion loss to the national exchequer on imports, down from Rs42.2 billion a year earlier. It does not explain the calculation.
One company, half the oil
OGDCL’s share of domestic LPG rose to 35 per cent in the quarter from 33 per cent. Its gas share held at 28 per cent.
OGDCL’s business overview puts daily output at 32,861 barrels of crude and 667 million cubic feet of gas, with 670 tonnes of LPG and 40 tonnes of sulphur on top. Its latest quarterly output figures run higher. Counting partners’ shares in joint fields, gross crude output went past 40,000 barrels a day in 2025-26, a level OGDCL had not touched in 27 quarters.
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Two fields do outsized work. Nashpa and Sinjhoro supply all three of its main products: crude, gas and LPG. Uch and Qadirpur anchor the gas side. Dakhni produces every tonne of sulphur.
Below ground, OGDCL holds 102,787 square kilometres of exploration acreage. That covers 31 per cent of all the area under exploration in Pakistan, the largest share of any company, spread across all four provinces and offshore. It runs 57 of its 82 exploration licences and 82 of its 116 development, production and mining leases.
Refineries buy its crude. Gas utilities, fertiliser plants and power producers take its gas. OGRA-licensed marketing companies buy its LPG. The company names Sui Southern Gas, Sui Northern Gas, Attock Refinery and Uch Power as its top customers.
Higher realised prices helped lift earnings despite the production restrictions. OGDCL realised an average $74.90 a barrel for its crude, up from $57.61. Gas fetched Rs796.08 per thousand cubic feet against Rs718.38. LPG sold for Rs173,350 a tonne, up from Rs147,302.
All three main products grew. Crude averaged 35,494 barrels a day, 13.3 per cent above last year’s level. Gas rose 14.2 per cent to 732 million cubic feet; LPG, 10.5 per cent to 696 tonnes. The best single day brought in 37,904 barrels and 824 million cubic feet.
Margins fattened. Net profit margin reached 44 per cent, four points above last year, and operating margin hit 53 per cent against 48.
Receivables collection, by OGDCL’s count, stood at 100 per cent. The company did not say which period or which receivables that figure covers.
A record year with a gap
The quarter follows a record year for OGDCL’s after-tax profit. Profit after tax for 2025-26 reached Rs242.37 billion, up 42.65 per cent. Shareholders collected Rs17 a share, a company high, including a record Rs6 quarterly payout. The stock gained 52 per cent.
Pre-tax profit moved the other way, falling 7.21 per cent to Rs259.16 billion. The company’s figures do not explain why after-tax earnings surged while pre-tax profit declined.
Drilling crews spudded 23 wells and drilled 58,333 metres, both the most in five years, and logged nine oil and gas discoveries. OGDCL reports a reserves replacement ratio of 236 per cent, which by its own measure means it added more than twice the reserves it produced.
Testing at the Wahid Bukhsh-01 geothermal well, OGDCL’s first, turned up lithium. The company has given no resource estimate, recovery plan or investment figure. Without those, the find stops well short of a commercial lithium project.
OGDCL plans to drill Pakistan’s first pilot horizontal shale gas well and explore eight offshore blocks it won in 2025-26. Its diversification push also includes a stake in the Reko Diq mining project, where the operator’s review continues.
Gas projects due by 2028
OGDCL expects to finish its KPD-TAY compression project in March 2027. The project targets 100 million cubic feet of gas, 1,500 barrels of crude and 170 tonnes of LPG a day.
Bettani development aims for another 85 million cubic feet of gas, 3,842 barrels of crude and 165 tonnes of LPG daily. OGDCL plans Phase I for December 2027 and Phase II for June 2028.
At Kunnar and Pasakhi, a water injection project with France’s SNF aims to lift hydrocarbon recovery by 8 to 10 per cent by March 2027. Baker Hughes is reviewing the company’s ageing fields.
OGDCL keeps finding oil and gas and keeps adding capacity. Selling all of it is another matter. Curtailments alone cost the company an estimated Rs9.7 billion in revenue during the September quarter.
