XTO earnings decline for quarter as gas volumes rise by 26 percent

Allen Baker, PNA contributing writer

XTO Energy Inc. led off the third-quarter earnings season with a profit of $50 million, down 28 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The company earned $34.6 million in the second quarter of this year.

Gas production for the Fort Worth, Texas, company was up 26 percent over the year-ago level at 536 million cubic feet daily. It was up 7 percent from the second quarter figure.

But gas prices dropped 20 percent from the year-earlier number, $3.26 per thousand cubic feet this past quarter, $4.08 a year ago. Changes in the value of derivatives added $2.8 million to the profit figure this quarter, compared with $18 million a year ago.

Oil flows dipped 2 percent compared with the 2001 quarter, to 12,996 barrels a day, but price more than made up the difference, rising 11 percent to $26.75 from $24.17 a year ago. Production of natural gas liquids rose 23 percent to 5,503 barrels a day, and the price there improved 4 percent to an average of $14.00.

Revenues rose 2 percent for the quarter to $201.7 million, from $197.3 million a year ago.

The company was formerly known as Cross Timbers Oil.