Canadian Natural Resources Ltd (CNQ)

[eFinanceMarkets]

$CNQ Canadian Natural +4% as Q2 earnings beat estimates, cuts capital spending

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ +3.9%) opens with strong gains after reporting better than expected Q2 earnings and announcing plans to cut capex.

Citing strong H1 results, CNQ raises the mid-point of its 2017 annual liquids and boe production guidance by 11K bbl/day and 3K boe/day, respectively, while lowering its full-year capital program by ~C$180M from earlier plans for C$3.9B in spending.

For Q2, CNQ says total production volumes averaged a record 913.1K boe/day, up 4% Q/Q and 16.5% Y/Y, despite continued reliability issues at a third party natural gas facility.

CNQ says cash flow climbed to $1.73B from $938M in the year-ago quarter, and reduced debt by ~$1.2B from year-end 2016.