ConocoPhillips (COP.N), the largest U.S. independent oil and gas company, on Thursday reported a quarterly profit that just beat Wall Street expectations, helped by a bigger-than-expected increase in oil and gas production.
The company recently concluded the sale of its oil assets in Nigeria to Oando Plc.
ConocoPhillips, like many other oil and gas companies, is drilling more in U.S. shale fields where wells bring better profits and steady production growth is easier to achieve.
For example Conoco’s production in the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas and the Bakken Shale in North Dakota rose 38 percent in the second quarter.
Income totaled $2.08 billion, or $1.67 per share, compared with $2.05 billion, or $1.65 per share in the year-ago period.
Excluding one-time items, Conoco’s profit was $1.61 per share. Analysts, on average, expected $1.60, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
In addition to divesting its assets from Nigeria, ConocoPhillips also sold its JV stake in Russia’s Lukoil and is about to sell its 50% stake in an asset owned in conjuction with Rosneft.
Parts of this article was culled from Reuters.
http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN0G018I20140731?irpc=932
