Medco to pay half of profit as dividends

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 05/06/2006 11:26 AM  |  Business

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The country's largest publicly listed oil company, PT Medco Energi Internasional, will distribute half of its 2005 net profit as dividends.

Medco Energi Internasional president Hilmi Panigoro said after a shareholders meeting Friday that the company would pay out US$37.3 million in dividends to shareholders. They would receive 1.12 US cents per share on June 15, higher than the 1.05 cents paid out last year.

The company's net profit increased 1.1 percent to $74.4 million in 2005 from $73.9 million in 2004.

Hilmi said he expected that the company's profit in the first quarter would increase amid current high oil prices.

Crude oil prices are hovering at more than $70 per barrel.

Hilmi predicted that oil prices would stay above $60 for at least one year.

He also said that the company's oil production this year was likely to increase.

The company's oil production last year amounted to 53,281 barrels per day (bpd), 4.1 percent lower than the 55,555 bpd recorded in 2004.

Hilmi said that last September's acquisition of Sembakung TAC, a block that produces about 5,000 barrels per day, and a new block in Oman that would start pumping 18,000 barrels per day in June would contribute to the company's total production this year.

Hilmi said that the company was considering selling a 6.7 percent stake, or 223.6 million shares, that it repurchased from the public back in June 2001.

He said that the company would sell the shares if it needed fresh funds to finance future expansion.

For 2006, he continued, the company was eyeing expansion in North Africa and the Middle East.

""We are currently bidding to develop one onshore block in Yemen and three in Algeria,"" he said. ""We are also now at the pre-qualification phase for the development of a block in Syria.""

He noted that at the moment, Medco Energi Internasional was sitting on proven oil and gas reserves equivalent to 173 million barrels and probable reserves of 535 million barrels of oil equivalent. (08)

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