Oil and natural gas company Birchcliff Energy (BIR) is hiking its quarterly dividend by an astounding 900% as the company makes good on a commitment to return capital to shareholders.
The new quarterly dividend will be 20 cents per common share, up from two cents previously.
The dividend increase comes alongside approval from Birchcliff Energy’s board of directors regarding its new five-year strategic plan, which focuses on delivering returns to shareholders.
The focus on returning capital to shareholders through dividends will continue to be sustainable provided that the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil does not fall below $70 U.S. per barrel and natural gas prices don’t drop below an average of $3 U.S. per gigajoule (GJ), said the Calgary-based company.
Birchcliff Energy expects to accumulate $570 million of cash flow in 2023 and will spend $270 million to generate around 82,000 barrels each day of average production.
Birchcliff Energy paid down $920 million of debt during the last three years and plans to completely eliminate its debt load within the next two years.
Birchcliff Energy’s stock is up 47% over the last year at $8.97 per share.
