PetroCan Reports Profit Increase

Petro-Canada reported a 37 percent gain in second-quarter profit on July 27 but cut production forecasts due partly to an outage at its Terra Nova offshore oil field. The company said net earnings for the quarter were $418m, or $0.82 a share, up from a year-earlier $305m, or $0.58 a share. Petro-Canada's net profit includes a $112m future income tax recovery because of lower federal and provincial corporate income tax rates in Canada and a $62m current income tax charge due to retroactive tax legislation in Quebec. Second-quarter earnings from continuing operations adjusted for one-time items were $419m, or $0.83 per share, down 5.4 percent from $443m, or $0.84 per share, in the year-ago quarter. The company said its quarterly profit was hampered by the unexpected outage last May at Terra Nova, which it expects to restart by the fourth quarter. Now Petro-Canada expects full-year upstream production from continuing operations to be in a range of 345,000 to 360,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, down from a previous range of 365,000 to 390,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Cash flow fell 13 percent to $667m, or $1.31 a share, from $769m or $1.47 a share. (Source: Reuters)