Pioneer Natural Posts Profit; Announces FY15 Capital Budget Of $1.85 Bln

(RTTNews) - Oil and gas company Pioneer Natural Resources (PXD) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter net earnings to equity holders of $431 million or $2.91 per share compared with a loss of $1.37 billion or $9.82 per share last year.

The prior-year quarter included impairment charges of $1.5 billion and loss from discontinued operations of $490 million, the company said.

Excluding items, adjusted earnings for the latest quarter were $0.80 per share.

Revenues for the quarter were $1.67 billion, including derivative gains of $693 million. This compares with revenues of $953 million in the prior year.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.95 per share on revenues of $1 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

At the end of 2014, Pioneer had proved reserves of 799 MMBOE, and net debt of $1.6 billion.

Pioneer said that in response to the current low oil prices and weak margins, it is reducing spending for 2015 and is focusing on optimizing returns, capital efficiency and production by high-grading drilling activity in the best areas of the Spraberry/Wolfcamp and Eagle Ford Shale.

The company has set a capital program of $1.85 billion for 2015, excluding acquisitions and asset retirement obligations, among others.