Anadarko quarterly profit down, but beats Wall St

SAN FRANCISCO: Anadarko Petroleum Corp reported a decline in quarterly profit as commodity derivative losses offset the positive impact of higher crude prices, though the earnings were better than expected.

The US oil and gas company, which has an ambitious offshore exploration program, said on Monday its net profit fell to $111 million, or 22 cents per share, from $229 million, or 46 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Shares of Anadarko fell 1 percent after-hours, having risen 3.9 percent in regular trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Excluding items, the Houston-based company earned 29 cents per share, compared with the 21 cents expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Anadarko said its oil and gas output in the quarter was 608,000 barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) per day, up 4 percent from 583,000 in the same quarter a year ago.

Anadarko added 359 million BOE of proved reserves in 2010 -- including 29 million BOE due to price revisions - for a reserve replacement rate of 153 percent. The company estimates its proved reserves at year-end 2010 totaled 2.42 billion BOE, up from 2.3 billion a year before.