Conoco said higher crude oil and natural gas prices, as well as continued growth in oil and natural gas production volumes, will result in earnings appreciably higher than current analysts' estimates for the third quarter. Conoco Chairman, President and CEO Archie W. Dunham said earnings would be in a range of about four to seven cents higher than First Call's current consensus estimate of 33 cents of underlying earnings per share for the third quarter. "We're on target to produce production growth of about 10 percent in 1999, in line with earlier estimates," he said. Conoco Executive Vice-President for worldwide upstream Rob McKee said the added production was primarily due to increased volumes from the giant U.K.