Oil giant ConocoPhillips said Wednesday that record crude prices helped its second-quarter profit dwarf year-ago results, when the company incurred a $4.5 billion charge related to its former assets in Venezuela. The Houston-based company said net income rose to $5.44 billion, or $3.50 a share, for the April-June period, from $301 million, or 18 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue increased to $71.4 billion from $47.4 billion a year ago. On average, Wall Street analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial expected earnings per share of $3.40. ConocoPhillips, the third-largest US oil company, is the first of the oil majors to report second-quarter earnings. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., among others, are scheduled to report results next week. The charge in the year-ago quarter was linked to ConocoPhillips' refusal to sign deals last spring with the Venezuelan government to keep pumping oil under tougher terms posed by President Hugo Chavez's government. Excluding that impairment, earnings from the most-recent quarter topped those of a year ago by about 13 percent, driven by profits from its exploration and production arm. As expected, however, spiking crude prices in the second quarter were a drain on earnings at ConocoPhillips' refining and marketing operations. The company said net income from its E and P sector amounted to $4 billion, 85 percent higher than adjusted earnings from a year ago. Far higher prices for crude and natural gas lifted results, which were somewhat offset by higher production taxes, lower volumes and increased operating costs. Oil prices have retreated in recent trading sessions to below $130 after climbing above $147 a barrel earlier this month. Still, prices remain about 70 percent above where they were a year ago and up about 35 percent from the start of the year. ConocoPhillips' daily production in the most-recent quarter averaged 1.75 million barrels of oil equivalent a day, down from 1.91 million barrels a year ago. The company attributed the decline to the expropriation of its Venezuelan oil projects last year and normal field decline. Production results include ConocoPhillips' Canadian Syncrude operations.
