MRO:Purty good earnings report imo:
Marathon Oil's quarterly results beat projections
By Maria Armental
Published: Nov 2, 2016 5:29 p.m. ET
Marathon Oil Corp.'s loss narrowed sharply in the latest quarter, helped by higher-than-projected production and lower costs.
The Houston exploration-and-production company said it plans to increase rig activity by about 50% by year's end, while staying within its planned $1.3 billion capital-spending budget.
Shares, up 1.5% this year, rose 1.6% to $12.99 in after-hours trading.
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Reeling from depressed prices, Marathon has cut production, slashed spending and sold stock and non-core assets to focus on "lower risk, higher return U.S. resource plays" and shore up its finances.
On Wednesday, Marathon raised the low end of its 2016 exploration and production forecast. It now projects 335,000 to 345,000 net barrels of oil equivalent a day. It also narrowed its oil-sands-mining synthetic crude oil production projection to a range of 45,000 to 50,000 net oil barrels a day.
Over all, Marathon's loss narrowed sharply to $192 million, or 23 cents a share. Excluding rig-termination payments and other items, the adjusted loss fell to 11 cents a share from 20 cents a year earlier. Revenue fell 7% to $1.23 billion.
The results beat analysts' projections, according to Thomson Reuters.
Exploration expenses fell to $83 million from $585 million a year earlier, while overall expenses declined 40% to $1.43 billion.
