Vermilion CEO says the dividend is safe

Vermilion Energy Inc.’s chief executive says the company’s dividend isn’t going anywhere.

“We’ve been paying a monthly dividend or distribution for 16 years. We continue to do that. It’s well known that we have not cut it,” Vermilion CEO Anthony Marino told BNN Bloomberg in an interview Thursday.

Vermilion reported a $10.2 million third-quarter loss Thursday and cut its production forecast.

Despite a slow recovery in Canadian oil prices and a dividend yield sitting at 15.24 per cent Friday morning, Marino said the 0.23 per cent monthly payout can be maintained through cost efficiency.

“We’re in the midst of a sixth year, perhaps a seventh year of kind of an L-shaped recovery in commodity prices and, to respond to that, the company has taken massive amounts of cost out of the system,” he said.

“We’ve made it – particular(ly) our capital program – tremendously more efficient than it has been in the past and that is what has maintained the sustainability of our dividend, and we’re committed to doing that.”