Africa-Press – Mozambique. The Annual Report and audited Financial Statements for the year ended June 30, 2021, of Companhia Nacional de Hidrocarbonetos (CMH), part of Empresa Moçambicana de Hidrocarbonetos (ENH), reveals that the company’s profits slipped in 2021. Newly appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company, Arsénio Mabote, explains that revenues were impacted by low oil prices in the international market due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The CMH Report shows a total positive comprehensive income (net income) of US$11.4 million, which represents a sharp reduction of about 54% when compared to 2020 fiscal year results, which reached US$24.7 million.
This revenue resulted from the production and sale of 179.35 million gigajoules of natural and condensed gas against the 176.19 million gigajoules sold in the 2020 fiscal year. Coupled with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the CMH chairman says in a report that one of the main challenges is the availability of proved reserves to ensure the supply of gas under the signed contracts.
“We urgently need to invest in additional projects, both gas compression and wells to recover more gas from the Pande and Temane reservoirs, in order to increase the respective volumes to be supplied, to cover the total contracted quantity, mitigating, in this way, the deficit of reserves,” the CMH CEO states in the company’s annual report.
In addition to the aforementioned challenges, CHM is also facing other technical and operational challenges in terms of investing in new wells to sustain the plateau and restore production wells, which have been experiencing integrity problems, in order to maintain the current capacity of gas production and satisfy signed contracts.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned constraints, CHM’s new chairman says that the company remains committed to paying satisfactory levels of dividends to shareholders, having already paid all declared dividends.
“On September 29, 2020, the Annual General Meeting was held at which CMH shareholders approved the distribution of 75% of the net income for the 2020 financial year. Therefore, in the current year, CMH paid its shareholders a total amount of US$18,578,217 in dividends, with US$11,181,425 paid on October 27, 2020 and US$7,396,792 paid on April 13, 2021,” Mabote details.
With regard to taxes and contributions, CMH paid a total amount of US$5,974,153 to the Mozambican state, of which 94% represents corporate income tax (IRPC), 5% personal income tax (IRPS) and 1% social security contributions (INSS).
Looking at the economic year ending June 30, 2021, Mabote underlines in the report that CMH shares continued to be traded on the Mozambique Stock Exchange (BVM) . During the current financial year, the source noted that there was a change in the share price of CMH from 2,750 to 3,500 Meticais, having reached the price of 4,600 Meticais in December 2020.
CMH, SA is the Mozambican partner in the Consortium (JO – Joint Operation) of the Natural Gas Project of Pande and Temane (PGN). Other partners are Sasol Petroleum Temane (SPT), which is the operator of the Pande and Temane gas fields and is a Mozambican subsidiary of the South African company Sasol Exploration and Production International (SEPI), with a 70% stake. CMH has a 25% stake, and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, has a 5% stake.
By
Evaristo Chilingue
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