ConocoPhillips’ Profit Exceeds Expectations

ConocoPhillips will sell its Anadarko Basin assets for $1.3 billion, the energy producer said on Thursday, after beating Wall Street estimates for second-quarter profit.

Shares of the company rose nearly 2% in premarket trade.

The asset sale, expected to close at the beginning of the fourth quarter, pushes ConocoPhillips past its $2 billion non-core asset disposition target ahead of schedule.

In April, Reuters reported ConocoPhillips was exploring the sale of its Oklahoma oil-and-gas assets that were secured under its $22.5 billion takeover of Marathon Oil in 2024 - a deal that had expanded the company's footprint in the Permian, Eagle Ford, and Bakken basins, while also adding operations in the Anadarko shale formation and Equatorial Guinea.

The Marathon deal helped lift the company's second-quarter production to 2.39 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 446,000 boepd from a year earlier.

Third-quarter production is expected to be 2.33 to 2.37 million boepd, the company said in a statement.

The production growth helped ConocoPhillips cushion the impact of lower crude prices.

Brent crude LCOc1 averaged nearly 20% lower in the second quarter from a year earlier, as U.S. import tariffs, weak global economic signals and higher output from OPEC+ weighed on prices.

Geopolitical tensions also pressured sentiment. Prices briefly rose above $80 per barrel in June after Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites, but eased to around $67 by the end of the quarter amid demand concernsand fading risk premiums.

The company's total average realized prices stood at $45.77 per barrel oil equivalent, 19% lower than a year earlier.

On an adjusted basis, ConocoPhillips reported a profit of $1.42 per share for the three months ended June 30, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.38, according to data compiled by LSEG.

(Reuters - Reporting by Arunima Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Devika Syamnath)