Noble Energy Inc. posted a third-quarter loss that was larger than analysts expected and lowered its full-year spending target.
The net loss was $283 million, or 67 cents a share, compared with profit of $419 million, or $1.12, a year earlier, the Houston-based company said in a statement on Monday. Excluding one-time items, the per-share loss was 3 cents more than the average of 31 analysts’ estimates in a Bloomberg survey.
Noble is interested in adding to its portfolio of offshore oil and natural gas prospects as other explorers abandon costly, deep-water drilling to conserve cash, CEO David Stover said during a conference call with analysts and investors Monday.
The company expects to formally approve at least one offshore Israeli natural gas development by the end of next year. Gas would probably begin to flow from one or both of the discoveries three to four years after Noble’s board makes so-called final investment decisions, Stover said.
With the Israeli government establishing the regulatory framework that will govern offshore energy ventures, Noble is set to begin harvesting more than 50 trillion feet of gas it has discovered in the Tamar and Leviathan fields in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Tamar, where the first phase of output began in 2013, already supplies the gas used to make half of Israel’s electricity.
Energy explorers have been battered as the 16-month rout in crude prices slashed cash flow and profits, prompting mass layoffs, canceled drilling projects and debt restructurings. Companies from Hess Corp. to Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. have posted third-quarter losses, and the blood-letting is expected to continue this week as more producers disclose results.
Even those companies that managed to eke out a profit have been tightening their belts: Chevron Corp. last week announced plans to dismiss 10 percent of its workforce in the steepest job cuts since the merger with Texaco Inc. in 2001.
Noble’s revenue from sales of crude oil and condensate tumbled 48 percent to $438 million during the quarter, more than offsetting increased output in every region the company operates wells except Equatorial Guinea.
Noble, which pumps oil and gas from the Rocky Mountains to West Africa, said full-year spending will total just under $3 billion, about $100 million less than previously forecast. The company is the second-largest driller in Weld County.
Noble rose 5.94 percent percent to $37.97 in New York Monday.
