By InvestAdvocate
Lagos (INVESTADVOCATE)-Shareholders of first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm, Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc (SEPLAT) on Tuesday approved a final dividend of $0.15 per share.
This is a 50 percent rise in dividend payout to shareholders of the company compared to $0.10 percent paid in the 2013 audited year end.
According to SEPLAT, it will pay shareholders that qualify for and have elected to receive the 2014 final dividend payment in naira or pounds sterling at N196.50/$1 and $1/£0.6375.
The first listed Nigerian oil and gas upstream firm; had on November last year declared a N9.30 interim dividend per share to its shareholders for the third quarter (Q3) ended 30 September, 2014.
Seplat in its corporate action with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said closure date for the N9.30 interim dividend per share is November 07, 2014.
The company announced that payment of the interim dividend will be on November 24, 2014.
Austin Avuru, chief executive officer (CEO), Seplat, said the company had made good progress against its key objectives since the initial public offering (IPO) in April 2014. “We have grown our 2P reserves and contingent resource base,” he said.
Responding to questions from journalists Avuru affirmed that the company, which had invested over $300m in its operations, had made significant progress with its gas commercialisation strategy.
“We are now operating in midstream by processing natural gas and crude oil development and delivery into the market. We have successfully made efforts in our gas development strategy by expansion of our gas processing facility in Oben. Seplat will take advantage of this to boost revenue from gas in 2015 and in the coming years,” he added.
According to him, the new 150MMcfd Oben gas processing facility will take overall gross production capacity at the company’s assets up 300MMcfd in 2015 and the company intends to grow this further to at least 450 MMscfd by end 2017.
Ambrosie Orjiakor, chairman of Seplat said the company is one of the leading indigenous Nigerian oil and gas companies, “and we believe we offer compelling value for investors internationally to take advantage of both our long-term growth strategy and the extensive opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector,” he added.
The dual listed firm highlighted its gas commercialisation strategy as a key revenue driver for the company.
‘We have made successful efforts in our development strategy by the expansion of our gas processing facility in Oben. This is against the backdrop of the Nigerian gas to power transformation agenda which has occasioned increasing gas demand at good prices in the domestic market. Seplat will take advantage of this to boost revenue from gas in 2015 and in the coming years,’ he affirmed.
