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Alaska’s top producers report earnings BP's profit fell 17%, analyst ‘cautiously positive;’ Conoco, Exxon up in first quarter despite low oil, gas prices Petroleum News
BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, reported a 17 percent drop in first-quarter earnings April 24 on lower oil prices and declining production.
Net profit for the three months ending March 31 fell to $4.66 billion from $5.62 billion in the first quarter last year. Revenue declined 3 percent to $62.04 billion.
BP was the first of the major European oil companies to report quarterly results, with most others also expected to record profit declines amid dwindling output and rising costs before a recovery in the second quarter. However, analysts said the results put BP at the bottom of the pack, particularly given its troubles in the United States following the 2005 Texas City refinery explosion that killed 15 workers and Prudhoe Bay transit line oil spills.
“Faced as it is with reduced production and higher costs, lower oil prices and the ongoing barrage resulting from its earlier failures, its challenges are not yet over,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Richard Hunter.
Hunter said the market was “cautiously positive” about BP’s earnings and outlook. Its shares rose 0.5 percent to $11.59 on the London Stock
Exchange BP’s replacement cost profit — which measures the amount it would cost to replace assets at current prices and is viewed by many analysts as the best measure of an oil company’s underlying performance — came in at $4 billion, down 24 percent from last year but in line with analysts’ expectations.
ConocoPhillips profit rises 7.7% ConocoPhillips said April 25 that asset sales pushed its first-quarter profits up 7.7 percent, but the oil major’s key exploration and production arm was hurt by lower commodity prices and the company warned of lower production.
Net income for the Houston-based company rose to $3.55 billion for the January-March period from $3.29 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Revenue fell 12 percent to $41.3 billion from $46.9 billion a year ago.
Shares closed up $1.18 at $70.82 on the New York Stock Exchange, having traded in a 52-week range of $54.90 to $74.89.
Citigroup analyst Doug Leggate said ConocoPhillips’ results came in below his own estimate, though he noted the stock continues to appear undervalued.
Lower year-over-year oil prices hurt results at the company’s exploration and production arm, where income fell to $2.33 billion from $2.55 billion to start 2006. Besides lower commodity prices — the market price of oil was off more than $5 a barrel in the first quarter versus a year ago — the company cited higher operating costs and taxes as hindrances. The market price for natural gas also was down from a year ago.
ExxonMobil profit rises 10% despite lower oil prices ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, said April 26 that its net income grew 10 percent in the first quarter, as higher refining, marketing and chemical profit margins overcame lower crude oil and natural gas prices.
Net income rose to $9.3 billion, or $1.62 a share, for the January-March period from $8.4 billion, or $1.37 a share, a year ago. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for a higher profit of $1.52 per share.
Revenue fell to $87.2 billion from $88.9 billion a year earlier. Like other major oil companies, Exxon was hurt by lower oil and natural gas prices to start 2007 compared with a year ago.
Last year, the company posted the largest annual profit by a U.S. company — $39.5 billion.
In March, ExxonMobil said it will spend some of that money on more than 20 new global projects in the next three years, investments expected to add 1 million oil-equivalent barrels a day to the company’s volumes at peak production.l
—The Associated Press contributed to this report
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