Profit of ConocoPhillips falls 80 %

ConocoPhillips, the third-biggest US oil producer, said first-quarter profit fell less than analysts estimated as output topped the company's forecast.
Net income dropped to $ 840 mm, or 56 cents a share, from $ 4.14 bn, or $ 2.62, a year earlier, Houston-based ConocoPhillips said. Excluding such one-time items as settlement costs, per-share profit was about 52 cents a share, 10 cents higher than the average of 13 analyst estimates.

Excluding a stake in Russia's LUKoil, oil and natural- gas production climbed 7.3 % to the equivalent of 1.93 mm barrels of crude a day. Output, which was helped by new developments in the UK, Russia, Norway, Vietnam and China, exceeded the company's forecast by about 28,000 bpd.
"Anytime one of the majors shows improved production, it's a positive," said Brian Youngberg, an analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in Des Peres, Missouri. "The fact that they're actually growing production even a little bit is a positive."

ExxonMobil and Chevron
ConocoPhillips is first among the three biggest US oil producers to report first-quarter earnings. ExxonMobil of Irving, Texas and San Ramon, California-based Chevron plan to report their earning soon.
US oil futures averaged $ 43.31 a barrel in the quarter, 56 % lower than a year earlier, after plunging from a record $ 147.27 reached in July. ConocoPhillips's revenue dropped 44 % as the average gas-futures price tumbled 49 %. The futures, which traded above $ 13 per mm Btu units last July, slid as low as $ 3.448.

"Overall, for the sector, it's not going to be a very nice quarter," said Philip Weiss, an analyst at Argus Research Corp. in New York.
Youngberg, the Edward Jones analyst, said ConocoPhillips responded to lower prices by keeping costs lower than expected.
"In this environment, they've just managed the company a little bit better than anticipated," he said.

LUKoil's profit drops
ConocoPhillips earned $ 700 mm from producing oil and gas, down 76 % from last year's first quarter. Profit from ConocoPhillips's stake in LUKoil dropped 93 % to $ 48 mm on lower estimates for realized prices and higher estimates for operating costs.
In March, ConocoPhillips said it expected output this year to be equivalent to about 1.8 mm barrels of oil a day, little changed from the 1.79 mm barrels pumped in 2008. The company's 2009 capital-spending plan of $ 12.5 bn is down 37 % from last year's $ 19.9 bn. ConocoPhillips said in January that it would cut its workforce by 4 %.

First-quarter profit from refining and marketing was $ 205 mm, down 61 % from a year earlier. Maintenance work cut utilization of US refineries to 80 % in the first quarter from 94 % in the previous quarter.
The company ranks behind only San Antonio-based Valero Energy in US oil-processing capacity.