ConocoPhillips 1Q net income slides after spin off

ConocoPhillips said its net income decreased in the first quarter after it spun off its Phillips 66 refining unit.
ConocoPhillips spun off Phillips 66, its downstream business, during the second quarter of 2012. It said that business was responsible for about $700 million in income during the first quarter of that year. Excluding results from that business the company said its earnings were about the same as they were a year ago.
ConocoPhillips said its net income fell to $2.14 billion, or $1.73 per share, from $2.94 billion, or $2.27 per share, in the 2012 first quarter. Excluding discontinued operations the company said it earned $1.42 per share.
Total revenue fell 10 percent to $14.65 billion, from $16.08 billion the prior year.
The company is planning to dispose of its interests in business in Algeria and Nigeria businesses and the Kashagan oilfield in the Caspian sea. Those businesses were reported as discontinued operations, and that reduced ConocoPhillips' adjusted earnings by 5 cents per share. It expects $8.5 billion in proceeds from the disposal of those businesses later this year.
The company said total production slipped to 1.6 million barrels of oil equivalent per day, from 1.64 million barrels per day a year ago. Production from continuing operations slipped 2 percent to 1.56 million barrels per day. The company's prices for crude oil fell 5 percent to $105.97 per barrel and liquid natural gas prices dropped 22 percent to $42.95 per barrel.
ConocoPhillips narrowed its production guidance for the year: it now expects to produce an average of 1.49 million to 1.52 million barrels of oil equivalent per day for the year, compared to its previous guidance of 1.48 million to 1.53 million barrels per day. It expects to produce 1.44 million to 1.47 million barrels a day in the second quarter.

37 foreigners die at Algeria gas plant

Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal has said that a total of 37 foreign workers died in a hostage crisis at an Algerian desert gas plant and seven are still missing. Sellal also told a news conference that a Canadian had coordinated the attack by Islamists on the site near the Libyan border.

An Algerian security source said that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians. However, Canada's foreign affairs department said it was seeking information, but referred to the possible involvement of only one Canadian.
Sellal said 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended on Saturday by storming the plant, and three had been captured alive.
American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Filipino and Romanian workers are dead or missing after the attack, for which veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda.

Air strike kills kidnappers, hostages in Algeria

Thirty-four hostages and 15 kidnappers has been killed when Algerian army helicopters bombed a gas complex where Islamists were holding more than 40 foreign hostages, one of the kidnappers told Mauritania’s ANI news agency.

According to Algeria’s Ennahar television, 15 foreigners, including a French couple, succeeded in escaping, along with about 30 Algerians.
A group calling itself the "Battalion of Blood" stormed the gas pumping station — operated by British Petroleum, Norway’s Statoil and Algeria’s state company — and its employee barracks before dawn. The group said it had seized more than 40 foreigners, including Americans, Japanese and Europeans.

Oil pushes higher in wake of Algeria attack

Crude-oil futures drifted back into positive territory finding underlying support following an attack by militants on a natural-gas field in Algeria that raised supply concerns.

In Europe, light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 40 cents, or 0.4%, to $94.64 a barrel in electronic trading. The trading was choppy, with the February contract earlier in negative territory.

The militants, with possible links to al Qaeda, seized about 40 foreign hostages including several Americans at a remote gas field in Algeria. An effort by Algerian security forces to storm the facility failed.

The attack leaves around 24 million cubic meters a day of gas and 60,000 barrels a day of liquids production offline, delivering another blow to Algeria’s stagnating gas industry.

February natural-gas futures rose 0.2% to $3.61 per million British thermal units.