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Barnwell net
soars 980% as oil,
gas revenues jump

The company also benefited
from its contract
drilling work

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Higher oil and gas prices helped boost net earnings of Barnwell Industries Inc. to $540,000 in the company's fiscal first quarter, up 980 percent from $50,000 a year earlier.

The latest profit, for the three months through Dec. 31, was equal to 41 cents a share, up from 4 cents a share in the previous first quarter. Revenues for the quarter were $4.3 million, up 30 percent from $3.3 million.

The Honolulu-based company, whose main operation is drilling for oil and natural gas in Canada, said that with oil prices up 84 percent compared with a year earlier, and natural gas and gas liquids prices also were steeply higher, Barnwell's first-quarter oil and gas revenues were up 33 percent.

The company also had higher revenues and profits from its contract drilling work and is making progress with Kaupulehu Developments, which is working on plans for a new resort in North Kona, said Morton H. Kinzler, Barnwell chairman and chief executive officer.

Barnwell owns 50.1 percent of the development company, which is beginning to get county approvals it needs, Kinzler said.

However, there is still a legal challenge to a prior approval, which is before the Hawaii Supreme Court, he noted.