Nexen Inc. one of Canada's most international oil producers, reports its net profit in the third quarter soared more than fourfold as the company posted gains from the sale of assets.
The Calgary company, which operates in the Gulf of Mexico, northern Alberta, the North Sea and Africa, reported it earned $537-million or $1.02 a share for the third quarter ended Sept. 30.
That compared with earnings of $122-million or 23 cents a year earlier.
The sharp profit jump reflected the sale of Nexen's heavy oil business in Canada and the company's North American natural gas marketing operations.
Three-month net sales rose to more than $1.4-billion from nearly $1,1 billion, while quarterly production before royalties was 239,000 daily barrels of oil equivalent output.
Nexen operates the Long Lake oilsands project and unconventional gas operations in Western Canada and carries out exploration and energy development around the world.
It also owns a stake in Calgary-based Canexus, a commodity chemicals producer spun off from the parent company years ago.
"We are on track to be well within our original annual production guidance range of 230,000 to 280,000 barrels of oil equivalent output a day," Marvin Romanow, Nexen's president and CEO, said before stock markets opened Thursday.
"And we continue to be on track to deliver new production volumes of approximately 70,000 boe/d over the next two years from Long Lake, Usan (in Africa) and shale gas."
During the quarter, Nexen sold its heavy oil properties in Western Canada for $975-million, taking about 15,000 daily barrels out of the company's production/ The oil company also completed the sale of its North American natural gas marketing business during the quarter.
"We have achieved excellent value on the sale of our non-core assets," said Mr. Romanow. "We now expect to generate approximately $1.5-billion from all asset sales, once we complete our disposition program which includes the sale of our interest in Canexus over the next twelve months. The proceeds will be used to develop the strong success we are having across our portfolio."