Sharjah, UAE – Dana Gas, a UAE-based natural gas company, has approved a cash dividend of 4.5 fils per share for the second half of the financial year 2022.
Shareholders holding the shares on May 4, 2023, will be eligible to receive the interim dividend, which is expected to be paid on May 25, 2023.
The total dividend payment for the year will be AED630 million ($171 million) or 9 fils per share, a 12.5 percent increase compared to the dividend for 2021.
The increased payout reflects the company’s strong operational performance for the year and higher global energy prices.
Dana Gas reported an average group production of 62,900 boepd for Q1 2023. In the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), production output was 9.5 percent higher year-on-year for the first quarter, and 7.6 percent higher on a sequential quarterly basis.
This resulted from an increase in production capacity at the Khor Mor Gas Plant by 50 MMscf/d in Q3 2022, following the successful completion of a further plant-debottlenecking project. As of January 2023, the total production capacity stands at 500 MMscf/d.
The KM 250 gas expansion project in the KRI has set a new target date of April 2024 for the first gas.
Dana Gas’s affiliate, Pearl Petroleum, is considering different financing options for the KM-250 expansion project at the Khor Mor field, including a potential bond issue.
Hamid Jafar, Chairman of Dana Gas, said that the recommendation to pay out a dividend for the second half of 2022 reflects the company’s belief in its growth prospects in the KRI and Egypt, where they hope to maximize the value from their assets with the proposed concession consolidation.