USA: Marathon Oil Net Income at USD 322 Mln

Marathon Oil Corporation reported fourth quarter 2012 net income of $322 million, or $0.45 per diluted share, compared to net income in the third quarter of 2012 of $450 million, or $0.63 per diluted share. For the fourth quarter of 2012, adjusted net income was $388 million, or $0.55 per diluted share, compared to adjusted net income of $454 million, or $0.64 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2012.

Marathon Oil reported full-year 2012 net income of $1.582 billion, or $2.23 per diluted share. Net income in 2011 was $2.946 billion, or $4.13 per diluted share. Net income for 2011 included income of $1.239 billion from the Company’s former Refining, Marketing and Transportation business, which was spun off on June 30, 2011 and reported as discontinued operations in 2011, so income from continuing operations is better suited for year-over-year comparison. For full-year 2012, adjusted income from continuing operations was $1.736 billion, or $2.45 per diluted share, compared to adjusted income from continuing operations of $2.293 billion, or $3.21 per diluted share, for full-year 2011.

“Last year, the first full year for Marathon Oil as an independent Exploration and Production (E&P) company, was marked by outstanding execution in our domestic resource plays, continued safe and reliable operations in our base assets and entry into new, high-potential exploration opportunities,” said Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., Marathon Oil’s chairman, president and CEO.

“Our strong position in the top U.S. resource plays, a stable portfolio of base assets and solid operational performance allowed us to increase full-year Upstream (E&P and Oil Sands Mining [OSM]) net production available for sale, excluding Libya which had production disruptions in 2011, 8 percent over the prior year, exceeding our 2012 production targets.

“We project 2013 production available for sale from our Upstream businesses will be 6 to 8 percent higher than 2012, excluding Libya because of the uncertainty in production levels and Alaska as we sold that asset at the end of January 2013. Importantly, this growth will continue to be focused on higher-value liquids.

“Our future growth is underpinned by our growing resource base and net proved reserves of 2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe) at year end 2012, a 12 percent increase over the prior year end and our highest level of proved reserves in 40 years. During 2012 we replaced 226 percent of our production, 185 percent excluding acquisitions, both at a preliminary cost estimate of approximately $17 per boe. This outstanding performance was largely driven by what we consider to be the highest-value resource plays in the world – the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas, the Bakken shale in North Dakota and the Oklahoma Resource Basins. We’ve established a 10-year plus drilling inventory across these plays at current rig levels and expect to spend approximately one-third of our $5.2 billion capital, investment and exploration budget for 2013 in the Eagle Ford, the cornerstone of our growth strategy.

“Importantly, our investments in recent years have afforded us the ability to scale our growth to optimize value. We’re committed to our goal of growing production at a 5 to 7 percent compound annual rate from 2010 through 2017, and we’ll do so with our long-standing commitment to spending largely within our cash flows. While volume growth is critical to our success, value growth is the ultimate goal. A key focus in 2013 will be improving our earnings and cash margins as we grow,” Cazalot added.

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LNG World News Staff, February 06, 2013; Image: Marathon Oil