Energen Q4 Profit From Cont. Ops. Rises; To Sell Majority Of San Juan Assets

(RTTNews) - Energen Corp. (EGN) reported fourth-quarter income from continuing operations of $66.52 million or $0.91 per share, compared to $45.63 million or $0.62 per share, prior year. Adjusted income from continuing operations totaled $41.1 million, or $0.56 per share, for the quarter.

On average, 18 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report profit per share of $0.57 for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Revenue increased to $611.44 million from $329.96 million last year. Analysts expected revenue of $358.10 million for the quarter.

Production was near the low end of the company's guidance range due to the timing of completions and a longer-than-estimated flow-back period for certain wells in the Midland Basin; and in the Delaware Basin, a third-party handling issue associated with liquids in the gas stream negatively affected fourth quarter production by approximately 80,000 barrels of oil equivalents (BOE). In addition, severe weather in late December impacted fourth quarter production by approximately 30,000 BOE.

Energen has agreed to sell the majority of its natural gas assets in the San Juan Basin to a private company for $395 million. The assets to be sold include approximately 985 net operated wells on some 205,000 net acres. The sale is expected to close by March 31, 2015.

Energen plans to invest approximately $1.0 billion of capital in its 2015 drilling and development program. Energen's 2015 production (excluding volumes from the company's San Juan Basin divestiture package) is estimated to range from 21.4-22.4 MMBOE (58,545-61,285 boepd), with a midpoint of 21.9 MMBOE.

James McManus, CEO of Energen, said: "We estimate that our capital budget for drilling and development in 2015 of some $1.0 billion will approximate internally generated cash flows plus proceeds from the sale of our San Juan Basin divestiture package such that Energen's debt-to-ebitdax multiple at year-end 2015 remains well under 2.0x. This level of spending also is expected to generate production growth of approximately 15 percent."