Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. (TSE:CNQ) (NYSE:CNQ), the country's second-largest oil and gas company, reported profit more than doubled, beating estimates, and cash flow hit a record high, helped by a record production and higher sales volumes in North America. Shares jumped in New York pre-market trades.
Net income rose to C$1.07 billion, or 97 Canadian cents per share, in the April-to-June period, from C$476 million, or 44 Canadian cents, a year earlier, the Calgary, Alberta-based company said in a statement today.
On an adjusted basis, the company earned C$1.04 per share.
Revenue jumped 42 percent to C$5.37 billion. Total product sales for the quarter leaped 44.5 percent to C$6.11 billion.
Analysts on average had expected the company to earn 98 Canadian cents per share on revenue of C$5.17 billion.
Cash flow from operations, a key indicator of the company's ability to pay for new projects and drilling, surged to C$2.63 billion from C$1.67 billion a year ago. The company achieved cash flow per share of $2.41, a 58 percent increase from the prior year level.
Canadian Natural, which operates in Canada, the North Sea and offshore West Africa, said its oil and gas production averaged 817,471 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) for the second quarter, up from 623,315 boepd a year earlier.
Early this year, Canadian Natural acquired Devon Energy Corp.'s (NYSE:DVN) Western Canadian natural gas and light oil assets for C$3.1 billion, which it said would boost total production by about 11 percent.
Moving forward, the company now projects 2014 production levels before royalties to be down from previous view and expects to average between 531,000 and 557,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) of crude oil. Natural Gas Liquids or NGL production view is slightly raised to a range of 1,550 to 1,570 Mmcf/d.
Previously, the company was projecting 2014 production levels before royalties to average between 537,000 and 574,000 bbl/d of crude oil and NGLs and between 1,530 and 1,570 Mmcf/d.
Canadian Natural also declared a quarterly cash dividend on its common shares of C$0.225 per share, payable on October 1 to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 12.
The company's U.S-listed shares were up 1.2 percent at $42.50 at 9:22 a.m. in New York.