Murphy Oil reports first quarter loss on falling oil, gas prices

Murphy Oil Corp. fell into the red during the first quarter as declining crude oil and natural gas prices cut a huge swath across the oil giant’s entire operations.

For the period ended March 31, El Dorado-based Murphy Oil reported a net loss of $14.4 million, or eight cents a share, compared with a profit of $155.3 million, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenues fell to $921.7 million, down 28% from $1.28 billion a year ago.

Income from continuing operations fell to $3.5 million, or two cents a share, from $169.3 million, or 93 cents a share, a year earlier. This year’s results included a $199.5 million after-tax gain on a 10% sale of Murphy’s assets in Malaysia.

Excluding certain nonrecurring items, the loss from continuing operations was $198 million or $1.11 a share, compared with a profit of 96 cents a share a year earlier. Wall Street analysts had expected the Arkansas oil company to report a loss of 87 cents a share on revenue of $764 million, according to Thomson Reuters.

Company officials attributed the $373.3 million decline in profits compared to a year ago to a nearly 50% decline in Brent and West Texas Intermediate benchmark crude prices and a 44% decline in the Henry Hub natural gas price.

“We continue to progress the optimization of our portfolio, reaching closure on the final phase of the sell-down of our Malaysia assets and signing a sales agreement for our remaining U.K. downstream assets. We remain focused on allocating capital and reducing operating expenditures,” Murphy CEO and President Roger Jenkins said in news release. “Looking ahead, Murphy is well-positioned with a solid balance sheet and cash positions to carry out our capital plans and evaluate opportunities that will enhance our business.”

In its U.S. exploration and production operations, Murphy said it averaged nearly 64,200 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) net, essentially flat to the fourth quarter 2014.

“As planned, we have reduced our rig count in EFS to four rigs during the first quarter and we expect to stay at this level for the rest of the year,” the company said.

Overall, Murphy’s first quarter production averaged near 221,550 boepd, “slightly ahead of our guidance of 221,000 boepd.” Going forward, Murphy said it expects second quarter net production of only 97,000 boepd, and full-year production of 195,000 to 207,000 boepd on capital expenditures of $2.3 billion.

In early trading on Thursday, Murphy’s shares were up 79 cents at $49.19. The Arkansas oil giant’s shares have traded between $42.19 and $68.43 for the full year.