Evergreen posts record income; hopes to begin Alaska production by year-end

Petroleum News Staff

Coalbed methane producer Evergreen Resources, which has decided to move slowly at its Pioneer Unit in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, posted record first-quarter net income of $16.9 million or $0.86 per share, largely on the strength of commodity prices. That compared to just $2.4 million earned in the year-ago quarter.

Evergreen CEO Mark Sexton, in an April 28 conference call, said that in Alaska it does not want to get ahead of the service industry’s ability to support its coalbed project north of Anchorage. He said Alaska is primarily geared to conventional oil and gas services.

“We don’t want to go out and create problems for the service industry while we are waiting for them,” Sexton said. However, Evergreen is still hoping to launch initial production by year-end, he added.

Overall, Evergreen’s natural gas production during the first quarter increased to a record 116,000 million cubic feet a day, up from 113,800 million cubic feet in the prior quarter and up from 98,000 million cubic feet a day in the year-ago period.

Evergreen said that with its recent acquisition of Canada’s Carbon Energy, the company expects 2003 production to increase 25 percent over last year’s levels.