Stephen Chazen
Analyst · Tudor, Pickering, Holt
Well, thank, you, Chris. I hope you can hear me better than I can hear you. Thank you, Chris. Core income was $1.6 billion or $1.96 per diluted share in the first quarter of this year compared to $1.1 billion or $1.35 per diluted share in the first quarter of last year. Non-core items amounted to a net after-tax charge of $44 million. Non-core items included pretax gains of $225 million from the sale of the Argentina operations and a $22 million gain from the sale of our interest in the Columbia pipeline. Non-core pretax charges included $163 million related to the early redemption of $1.4 billion face value of debt, $35 million write-off, the entire accumulated estimated cost of exploration properties in Libya and nonrecurring out-of-period charges for state and foreign taxes, $62 million. This resulted in net income of $1.5 billion or $1.90 per diluted share in the first quarter of 2011 compared to $1.1 billion or $1.31 per diluted share in the first quarter of last year. We reorganized our Permian operation to 2 business units this quarter. One unit will hold the CO2 flood assets and the other will operate the conventional production. In connection with these, we've moved the production from Southwest Texas, which was previously part of the Midcontinent and other, into the Permian. The Midcontinent and other includes production from the recently acquired South Texas and North Dakota properties. Natural gas liquids account for about 10% of our Oil and Gas volumes and sell at a discount to crude oil. Starting this quarter, reporting NGL and crude oil production and sales volume separately as opposed to the previously disclosed combined liquids volumes. Please see the Investor Relations supplemental schedules for the 2010 quarterly realized prices and production and sales volumes reflecting these changes. Here's the segment breakdown for the first quarter. Oil and Gas segment and core earnings for the first quarter of 2011 were $2.5 billion compared to $1.9 billion from the first quarter of 2010. Realized prices increased 24% for crude oil in 2011 and 11% for NGL prices on a year-over-year basis, but domestic natural gas prices declined 25% from the first quarter of last year. Sales volumes to first quarter of 2011 were 728,000 BOE a day, a 6% increase compared to 685,000 BOE a day for the first quarter of 2010. The production guidance we gave you in last quarter's conference call was 740,000 to 750,000 BOE a day, was an $85 average price assumption. The actual first quarter oil price reduced our production volumes by about 10,000 BOE per day, including 1,000 BOE a day at THUMS in Long Beach in California. As we previously disclosed, our Iraq production was lower by about 9,000 BOE a day due to less than planned spending levels as we are in the startup phases of operations. Inclement weather, mainly in Texas, caused an additional reduction of about 7,000 BOE a day. These reductions were offset by less-than-expected production loss from the Elk Hills maintenance shutdown and operational enhancements, providing higher-than-expected production in Colombia, Yemen and Qatar as well as the new assets resulting in production of 730,000 a day. Please see the production and sales volume reconciliations schedules in the Investor Relations supplemental schedules. First quarter production of 730,000 a day was higher than the fourth quarter 2010 production of 714,000 a day. First quarter volumes compared to the prior fourth quarter included 25,000 barrels a day from the new domestic acquisitions in South Texas and North Dakota. Sales of 728,000 a day, which is higher than our initial guidance of 725,000 a day, differ from production volume to the timings of liftings principally caused by Iraq, where liftings are expected in later half of 2011. First quarter 2011 realized prices improved for all our products over the fourth quarter of 2010. Worldwide crude oil realized prices $92.14 a barrel, increase of 15%. Worldwide NGLs were $52.64 a barrel, improvement 7%; and domestic natural gas prices were $4.21 per MCF, increase of 2%. Oil and Gas production costs were $11.30 a barrel for the first quarter of 2011 compared to last year's 12-month cost of $10.19 a barrel. The increase reflects increased workovers and maintenance activity and higher cost for energy. Taxes, other than non-income, which are directly related to product prices, were $2.25 a barrel for the first quarter of 2011 compared to $1.83 for all of last year. Total exploration expenses are $84 million in the quarter. This amount include the Libyan write-off of $35 million, which is included in non-core items discussed earlier. Chemical segment earnings in the first quarter of 2011 were $219 million, which were greater than our earlier guidance. These results are among the best ever reported for the Chemical segment's first quarter of operations which is historically a weak quarter due to seasonal factors. First quarter operations were positively affected by strong export demand and improved supply-demand balances across most products, resulting in higher margins including higher demand for calcium chloride resulted in severe winter storms in the Northeast and Midwest sections of the United States. Midstream segment earnings for first quarter of 2010 were $114 million compared with $202 million for the fourth quarter of 2010 and $94 million in the first quarter of 2010. The decrease from the fourth quarter earnings were mainly due to lower marketing and trading income. The worldwide effective tax rate on core income was 40% in the first quarter of 2011, which was in line with our guidance. Capital spending for the first quarter of this year was $1.3 billion, about 88% was in Oil and Gas, 10% in Midstream and the remainder in Chemicals. We're currently operating 16 rigs in the Permian and 24 rigs in California compared to 5 and 11 rigs, respectively, in the first quarter of last year. Cash flow from operations the first 3 months of 2011 was $2.2 billion, which includes a build in our accounts receivable of about $1 billion from the fourth quarter. In addition, we received $2.7 billion in proceeds from the sale of assets and use $1.3 billion from the company's cash flow to fund capital expenditures and $3 billion on acquisitions. We used $310 million to pay dividends and $1.5 billion to retire debt. We borrowed $1 billion at the end of the quarter for short-term needs, which has now been repaid. These and other net cash flows reduced our $2.6 billion cash balance at the end of last year by $500 million to $2.1 billion. Free cash flow from continuing operations after capital spending and dividends, but before acquisition and debt activities, was about $500 million. Acquisition expenditure in the first quarter was $3 billion. These acquisitions included the previously announced South Texas purchase and properties in California and the Permian. Excluding the South Texas purchase, these properties did not materially impact the first quarter volumes. During the second quarter, we will make a payment of about $500 million in connection with the signing of the Shah Field Development Project. This amount represents development costs incurred by the project prior to the effective date for our participation. Future development costs reflected in capital expenditures. The weighted average basic shares outstanding for the first 3 months of 2011 were $812.6 million and the weighted average diluted shares outstanding were $813.4 million. Our debt-to-cap ratio declined to 12% compared to 14% at the end of last year. Our remaining outstanding debt has an average interest rate of 3.7%. As we look forward to the current quarter, first quarter average oil prices are about $95. Expect the second quarter Oil and Gas production volumes to be as follows. Domestic volumes are expected to increase to at least 425,000 BOE a day compared with the first quarter daily production of 404,000 BOE a day. Latin America is expected to be comparable to quarter one volumes. In the Middle East region, where an overwhelming majority of the value using either the SEC standardized measure or income, comes from Qatar, including Dolphin and Oman, where the operations are running smoothly. With regard to second quarter production in Middle East region, we expect no production for Libya. Production levels in Iraq are not easily predictable due to volatile spending levels at this early stage of that project. This is caused by the nature of the contract, which allows at anywhere near current oil prices immediate recovery of expenditures through cost recovery barrels. As a result, the level of development spending in any given period has an immediate impact on volumes for that period. In Yemen, almost all of our reduction comes from concessions operated by others. In addition, the Masila Field contract, which produces net to us about 11,000 barrels of oil a day is approaching expiration at the end of 2011 and capital spending is being phased down. These factors make a forecast in the production volumes from this area to be very difficult. For the remainder of the Middle East, we expect production to be comparable to first quarter volumes. Total sales volumes are expected to be 725,000 BOE a day, which should not include any volumes from Iraq or Libya. A $5 increase in WTI would reduce our production sharing contract daily volumes by about 3,500 barrels a day. We are increasing our total capital spending program to $6.8 billion, with about $500 million of the increase related to Shah Field development program, subsequent to the effective date of our participation, and the remainder principally in California spending attributable to additional permits being obtained. At current market prices, $1 per barrel change in oil prices impacts quarterly earnings before income taxes by about $34 million. First quarter WTI oil price was $94.10 per barrel. $1 per barrel change in WTI prices affects NGL quarterly earnings before income taxes by about $4 million. A swing of $0.50 per million BTUs in domestic gas prices has a $34 million impact on quarterly earnings before income taxes. The current NYMEX gas price is around $4.25 an M. Additionally, we expect exploration expense to be about $85 million for seismic and drilling for our exploration program. The Chemical segment earnings are expected to be comparable to the first quarter. We expect continuation in the first quarter trends with sufficient gains from strong exports and seasonal demand improvement to offset the reduced contribution from the calcium chloride business. We expect our worldwide tax rate in the second quarter to be about 39%. In California, we are continuing the program I discussed in the last quarter's conference call, which is progressing with satisfactory results. Permitting, especially exploration permits, are still an issue but we recently obtained some permits that make us optimistic about increasing our second half capital spending plan. Governor Brown has been working to speed up the permitting process. We expected that his effort will be successful, which should enable us to increase our activity and add more jobs to the state. In the first quarter, we drilled and completed 26 shale wells outside of the Elk Hills Field. Copies of the press release and the Investor Relations supplement are available on our website or to the EDGAR system. We're now ready to take your questions.