Anadarko Petroleum 4Q Profit More Than Doubles, Boosted by Sale of Canadian Subsidiary

Anadarko Petroleum Corp. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit more than doubled from a year ago, lifted largely by the sale of its Canadian subsidiary.

The independent oil and gas producer earned $1.92 billion, or $4.13 per share, in the October-December period, up from $874 million, or $1.87 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue climbed to $3.18 billion from $1.92 billion a year ago.

The average estimate of Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Financial was for a profit of $1.26 a share on revenue of $2.73 billion.

The most recent results include a number of one-time items, including a gain of $1.77 billion for the sale of Anadarko’s Canadian operations, part of an intensive restructuring at the company, based in the Houston suburb of The Woodlands.

Income from continuing operations in the most recent quarter was $186 million, or 40 cents a share.

Anadarko began to reshape its portfolio after its $22.5 billion purchase of rivals Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources Inc. in separate transactions last August. It has sold a number of oil fields in Louisiana, Wyoming and Texas and in November closed the previously announced sale of its Canadian subsidiary for about $4.24 billion to Canadian Natural Resources Ltd.

Assets in Venezuela and elsewhere remain for sale.

Last week, after announcing a deal to sell natural gas properties in Oklahoma and Texas to Exco Resources Inc. for $860 million, the company said asset sales in the six months since closing the Kerr-McGee/Western Gas acquisitions had generated $9 billion in after-tax proceeds.

Anadarko has said it hopes to reduce debt from about $26 billion at the start of the year to roughly $12 billion by the end of 2007.

“Our focused asset base is already delivering better oil and natural gas volumes and exploration success,” Anadarko chairman and chief executive Jim Hackett said in a statement.

For the year, Anadarko roughly doubled its net income to $4.9 billion, or $10.46 a share, from $2.47 billion, or $5.19 a share, in 2005.

Revenue grew to $10.2 billion from $6.19 billion.

Shares of Anadarko fell 76 cents to $42.19 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.