Williams reports second-quarter earnings

<br>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Williams Cos. reported second-quarter earnings of $269.7 million Tuesday, or 46 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $349.1 million, or 68 cents a share, in the same quarter

Tuesday, August 12th 2003, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) _ Williams Cos. reported second-quarter earnings of $269.7 million Tuesday, or 46 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $349.1 million, or 68 cents a share, in the same quarter last year.

So far this year, the Tulsa-based company has reported a net loss of $544.8 million, or $1.10 a share, compared with a loss of $241.4 million, or 61 cents a share, in the first half of 2002.

In the second quarter, the company reported net income of $118 million, or 18 cents per share, from continuing operations. A year ago, it reported a loss of $331.8 million, or 65 cents a share, on a restate basis for discontinued operations related to assets sold or held for sale.

The improved performance from continuing operations reflects items included in the company's Energy Marketing & Trading segment results, including $567 million of higher market-to-market results, primarily from some derivative contracts that were affected by increased natural gas prices; a $175 million net gain on the sale of an energy-trading contract; and about $81 million of segment profit associated with prior-period adjustment, the company said.

Another contributor is a $92 million net gain on the sale of certain exploration-and-production properties, the company said.

Income from discontinued operations in the second quarter of 2003 was $151.7 million, or 28 cents a share, compared with a loss of $17.3 million, or 3 cents a share, in the same period last year on a restated basis.

Results from the most recent quarter include pre-tax gains of about $275.6 million and another $39.9 million from sales of Williams Energy Partners and certain exploration-and-production properties, the company said.

Recurring income from continuing operations was $0.5 million in the second quarter, compared with a recurring loss of $211.4 million, or 41 cents a share, on a restated basis in 2002.

In the first six months of 2003, Williams increased its unrestricted cash by $1.5 billion and reduced its debt by $0.9 billion, for an improvement of $2.4 billion in cash and debt, the company reported.