Whiting Petroleum Profit Surges On Higher Production

(RTTNews) - Oil and natural gas company Whiting Petroleum Corp. (WLL) Wednesday reported third-quarter net income to common stock of $204 million or $1.71 per share, compared with $83 million or $0.70 per share last year.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $153 million or $1.28 per share, compared with $91 million or $0.77 per share a year ago.

Revenues for the quarter were $831 million and included a gain of $116 million from the sale of properties. This compares with revenues of $531 million in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $1.07 per share on revenues of $684.39 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Whiting said its production for the quarter totaled 8.53 million barrels of oil equivalent, or MMBOE, up 12% from 7.6 MMBOE last year.

The company has sold a portion of its Big Tex assets for $150 million.

In June, Whiting sold its Oklahoma Panhandle assets to BreitBurn Energy Partners LP (BBEP) for about $860 million.

The company's stock closed Wednesday at $63.24, down $0.67 or 1.05%, on a volume of 5.4 million shares on the NYSE. In after hours, the stock gained $0.26 or 0.41%.