☰

Empresas y finanzas

Hess third-quarter net tops Street as Bakken production surges


    (Reuters) - Oil and gas producer Hess Corp posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as production jumped in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation.

    Net income surged to $1 billion, or $3.31 per share, in the third quarter from $420 million, or $1.23 per share, in the year-ago period.

    Excluding recent asset sales and other one-time items, the company posted profit of $1.24 per share.

    By that measure, analysts expected $1.07, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

    Oil production jumped to an average of 380,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) from 310,000 boe/d in the year-ago quarter.

    Production in North Dakota jumped 21 percent to 86,000 boe/d. Bakken has been one of HESS (HES.NY) most prolific production areas in recent years. The company opened 59 Bakken wells in the third quarter.

    Production in Libya, which has been marred by violence in recent years, is slowly returning, and Hess said production averaged 4,000 boe/d during the quarter.

    (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder Editing by W Simon and JS Benkoe)