Anadarko Petroleum Q3 Profit Rises

(RTTNews) - Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC) Monday reported a higher profit for the third quarter, as the oil and gas producer's sales jumped helped by growth in volumes. Nevertheless, adjusted earnings for the quarter fell short of analysts' expectations, while revenues trumped Wall Street estimates.

Anadarko's third-quarter profit rose to $182 million or $0.36 per share from $121 million or $0.24 per share last year.

The latest quarter included $376 million in losses on divestitures among other items, which negatively impacted bottom line by $0.77 per share, while the year-ago period included a loss of $290 on derivatives, impacting profit by $0.60 per share.

Excluding one-time items, adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $1.13 per share from $0.84 per share last year. On average, 32 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $1.16 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Anadarko's third-quarter revenues grew to $3.85 billion from $3.33 billion in the prior year. Analysts estimated revenues of $3.82 billion for the quarter.

Sales volumes climbed to the equivalent of 71 million barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) from 68 million BOE last year. Anadarko's average volumes increased to 775 thousand BOE per day for the third quarter from 739 thousand BOE per day last year.

Anadarko said it achieved record US onshore sales volumes of about 590 thousand BOE per day during the quarter.

The company's average sales price for crude rose to $106.05 a barrel in the third quarter from $99.93 a year earlier, while its average gas price climbed to $3.33 per thousand cubic feet from $2.67 a year earlier.

During the quarter, Anadarko announced a $2.64 billion transaction for the sale of a 10-percent working interest in Mozambique's Offshore Area.

APC closed Monday's trading at $95.93, up $1.54 or 1.63%, on the NYSE. The stock, however, dropped $0.93 or 0.97% in after hours trade.