USA: Marathon Oil Posts Q2 Net Income of USD 996 Million

Marathon Oil Corporation today reported second quarter 2011 net income of $996 million, or $1.39 per diluted share.

Net income in the second quarter of 2010 was $709 million, or $1.00 per diluted share. On June 30, 2011, Marathon Oil completed the spin-off of its Refining, Marketing and Transportation business, now reported as discontinued operations and excluded from segment income; as a result, income from continuing operations will be best suited for comparison. For the second quarter of 2011, adjusted income from continuing operations was $689 million, or $0.96 per diluted share, compared to adjusted income from continuing operations of $440 million, or $0.62 per diluted share, for the second quarter 2010.

“In the second quarter we successfully completed the spin-off of our downstream business and announced the pending $3.5 billion acquisition of assets in the Eagle Ford shale in Texas,” said Clarence P. Cazalot Jr., Marathon Oil’s chairman, president and CEO. “Our second quarter financial results, while solid, were negatively impacted by unplanned downtime at key international operations which held our second quarter production to the lower end of guidance. These operations are all back operating at or above expected capacity.

“Importantly, our production forecast and capital expenditure guidance for 2011, excluding acquisitions, remain unchanged. Going forward, we are confident that we have the foundation in place to deliver 5 to 7 percent compound average production growth during the period 2010 – 2016. This strong growth profile is underpinned by our pending top-five acreage position in the core, liquids-rich area of the Eagle Ford, as well as solid positions across the Bakken, Anadarko Woodford and Niobrara liquids-rich resource plays.

“In the Bakken alone we have increased our production growth target and now expect to average 33,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) by 2016. With our plans to significantly increase rig activity to more than 40 rigs over the next 18 months, we see approximately 175,000 boepd of net production across our substantial North America unconventional portfolio by 2016. Additionally, we expect our strong base assets to deliver the cash flow and earnings to fund this growth while we continue to maintain a solid balance sheet and competitive dividend,” Cazalot said.

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Source: Marathon Oil, August 2, 2011;