Oil Search lifts production 81%

Oil Search will pay out more of its profits to shareholders after lifting production 81 per cent during the September quarter.

Oil Search has promised to increase dividend payments to shareholders after lifting production 81 per cent during the September quarter.

The company produced 6.67 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) during the three-month period, up from 3.69 mmboe in the June quarter.

Production was nearly four times that seen during the September quarter of 2013.

Meanwhile, revenue jumped 58 per cent to $US538 million ($A582.09 million).

The sharp jump in production us due to PNG LNG, which shipped its first cargo ahead of schedule in May.

Oil Search owns 29 per cent of the ExxonMobil-operated project that is also supposed to transform and double the size of the Pacific island nation's economy.

The company said shareholders could look forward to higher dividends as it plans to pay out between 35 and 50 per cent of profits from now on.

"The board has agreed that, after debt servicing, sustaining capital expenditure and commitments, the payment of a materially higher dividend will be our highest priority," the company said in a statement on Thursday.

"A new policy has been approved, which will see the payment of 35-50 per cent of core net profit after tax being paid to shareholders by way of dividends, commencing with the 2014 final dividend."

But, the company said, it would still have substantial scope to pursue new growth opportunities and there was plenty of further potential within it existing Papua New Guinea assets.


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