Devon Energy up on higher oil, gas prices

OKLAHOMA CITY (Dow Jones/AP) _ Devon Energy Corp. said earnings in the latest quarter climbed as higher oil and gas prices offset disruptions caused by the Gulf hurricanes. <br/><br/>The Oklahoma City-based

Thursday, October 27th 2005, 4:46 pm

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (Dow Jones/AP) _ Devon Energy Corp. said earnings in the latest quarter climbed as higher oil and gas prices offset disruptions caused by the Gulf hurricanes.

The Oklahoma City-based energy company on Wednesday said it earned $744 million, or $1.63 a share, on revenue of $2.7 billion in the third quarter.

The company said the latest quarter included items that decreased earnings by $108 million, or 24 cents a share. The items were for, among other things, changes in the fair value of derivative financial instruments and interest costs associated with the early redemption of debt.

Excluding the charges, earnings would have come to $1.87 a share.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $1.80 a share on revenue of $2.39 billion, according to Thomson Financial. Their estimates generally exclude items.

In the same period a year earlier, Devon earned $517 million, or $1.03 a share, on revenue of $2.27 billion. The per-share figure takes into account a two-for-one stock split in November 2004.

Devon said its recent financial results have allowed it to expand the search for new oil and gas reserves. Through the first nine months of the year, the company said it has invested $2.6 billion, and drilled 1,837 wells, up 20 percent from a year ago.

For the third quarter, Devon said it drilled 644 productive wells, with an overall success rate of 98 percent.

The company's combined oil, gas and natural gas liquids production in the third quarter was 598,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from year-ago production of 679,000 BOE per day.

Devon attributed the decline to property divestitures and, to a lesser extent, the recent hurricanes.