Anadarko Reports Quarterly Profit as Output Increases

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. (APC), the second-largest U.S. independent oil and natural-gas producer by market value, reported a third-quarter profit as sales volumes topped the company’s July forecast.

Net income was $121 million, or 24 cents a share, The Woodlands, Texas-based company said in a statement today. That compares with a net loss of $3.05 billion, or $6.12 a share, in the year-earlier quarter because of costs from a Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Excluding losses from energy contracts and other one-time items, per-share profit was 9 cents more than the 75-cent average of 31 analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Third- quarter sales volumes rose 12 percent from a year earlier to the equivalent of 739,000 barrels of oil a day. On July 30, Anadarko said it expected daily sales for the third quarter to be 707,000 to 728,000 barrels of oil equivalent.

Anadarko is tapping onshore U.S. formations, such as in Colorado and Texas, to help boost production of liquids including oil. It’s also exploring in the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Africa.

The company boosted the midpoint of its full-year forecast by 3 million barrels, with a new range of 265 million to 267 million barrels. Revenue climbed 4.2 percent from a year earlier to $3.33 billion in the third quarter.

The quarter was helped by the company’s Wattenberg horizontal program in Colorado and Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, which accounted for an increase of more than 800,000 barrels of liquids sales compared with the second quarter.

Production Shut

About 1 million barrels of oil equivalent of production was shut in the Gulf of Mexico during the third quarter because of downtime related to weather, Anadarko said today.

The company had a 25 percent stake in the BP Plc-operated Macondo well in the Gulf, which in 2010 was the site of the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. Last year, Anadarko agreed to pay BP $4 billion to settle claims related to the spill.

Gas futures traded in New York averaged $2.893 per million British thermal units in the third quarter, a 29 percent decline from a year earlier, amid a glut of the power-plant fuel. Brent crude futures, a global benchmark, dropped 2.4 percent from a year earlier to average $109.42 in the third quarter.

Anadarko fell 6 cents to $66.49 on Oct. 26. U.S. trading was closed today because of Hurricane Sandy. The shares have fallen 13 percent this year.

ConocoPhillips (COP) is the largest U.S. independent oil and gas producer by market value. Independent oil companies don’t own refineries or a chemical business.

(Anadarko is scheduled to hold an earnings conference call tomorrow at 10 a.m. New York time. To listen, go to http://www.anadarko.com.)

To contact the reporter on this story: Edward Klump in Houston at eklump@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Susan Warren at susanwarren@bloomberg.net

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Oct. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Bob Dudley, chief executive officer of BP Plc, Europe's second-biggest oil company, discusses the company's third-quarter profit and dividend policy. He speaks in London with Bloomberg Television's Ryan Chilcote. (Excerpt. Source: Bloomberg)