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Anadarko profit at $189 million; company boosts 2002 estimates Third quarter production down from last year ago and from second quarter, partly due to reduced capital investment, hurricane disruptions Allen Baker PNA Contributing Writer
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. reported net income for the third quarter of $189 million as higher oil production partly offset lower natural gas production and prices.
The figure was down 21 percent from $238 million in the second quarter of this year.
Third-quarter earnings for the Houston-based company aren’t easily compared with the same quarter of 2001, when the company lost $1.35 billion after taking a special charge of $1.57 billion to write down the value of some assets due to an accounting error. Excluding that charge, the 2001 number was $213 million, well above this year’s third quarter.
Anadarko executives say they’re expecting to reach their target of producing 196 million barrels of oil equivalent for the whole year, and they raised earnings guidance for the full year to $3.05 per share from $2.89.
Gas flows decline But third-quarter production numbers are down from a year ago and from the second quarter. Anadarko’s daily volumes totaled 526,000 BOE for the third quarter, a decline from 546,000 in the second quarter and 558,000 a year ago. Year over year, that’s a 6 percent drop.
Some of the decline was due to hurricane disruptions in the Gulf of Mexico, but company officials say the 12 percent slide in U.S. gas production was also due to lower levels of capital investment in late 2001 and this year. Canadian gas production rose 12 percent, however.
Crude oil production was essentially flat at 191,000 barrels daily, while the flow of natural gas liquids slid 15 percent to 41,000 barrels a day.
Average crude prices were up in the quarter by 12 percent to $24.50 a barrel and the price for gas liquids rose 4 percent to $15.40. But natural gas brought $2.64 per thousand cubic feet, a 12 percent decline from $3 a year ago.
Revenues for the quarter were $951 million. That was down 6 percent from $1.01 billion a year ago. The company had revenues of $1.37 billion in the second quarter of this year.
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