TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – US independent oil and gas company Anadarko Petroleum Corp on Tuesday reported a sharply higher profit for the quarter ended September 30, owing to higher output at its Wattenberg field in Colorado and asset sale proceeds.
Oil and gas companies, including Anadarko, have been selling assets with lower returns to invest more heavily in US shale oil wells. Anadarko closed $2.2-billion worth of oil and gas property deals during the quarter, including its Chinese unit in August.
"We will continue to actively manage our deep portfolio of assets and evaluate opportunities to bring the embedded value forward for our stakeholders," Anadarko CEO Al Walker said in a statement.
The company added that it now expected to settle its long-running legal saga surrounding environmental liabilities related to Tronox in early 2015. Anadarko most recently said it expected to close the matter in the second half of this year.
The third-quarter profit for the Houston-based company was $1.09-billion, or $2.12 a share, compared with $182-million, or $0.36 a share, in the same period a year earlier.
Excluding one-off items, including asset gains, its profit was $1.16 a share. Analysts had expected a profit of $1.27 a share, according to Thomson Reuters' Institutional Brokers Estimate System.
Oil and gas production rose to 849 000 barrels oil equivalent a day (boed), up from 775 000 boed in the third quarter of last year.
The average sales price per barrel of crude and condensate in the quarter was $94.56, well above the $81.55 that benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at on Tuesday. In the year earlier quarter, the price received was $106.05.
Anadarko raised its full-year output forecast for the third time this year. It now expected to produce 304-million to 306-million boed a year, up from the previously estimated 299-million to 302-million boed.
Private equity firm KKR said in a separate release that it would help Anadarko develop its Eaglebine acreage in south Texas by becoming a non-operated working interest partner. Financial terms were not provided, but KKR said it expects to participate in 500 wells.