Barnwell Industries Inc. today reported a profit of $320,000, or 24 cents a share, for the final quarter of its Sept. 30 fiscal year, up 88.2 percent from a net of $170,000, or 13 cents a share, for the last quarter of 2001. Barnwell posts
strong final quarterStar-Bulletin staff
The company said the refunding of overcharges in the year-earlier period significantly lowered its oil and gas operating expenses.
Quarterly revenues of $4.17 million were up only slightly from a year-earlier $4.16 million.
For the full year the Honolulu-headquartered drilling and exploration business reported a profit of $40,000, or 3 cents a share, compared to a year-earlier profit of $3.8 million, or $2.92 a share. Barnwell was hit by lower oil and natural gas prices through most of the year and had losses in its second and third quarters.
The company said its annual oil and gas revenues were down by $8.6 million, or 43 percent, at $15.9 million for 2002, compared with $24.1 million in 2001.
Barnwell would have had a net loss for 2002 but for one plus item in the first half of the year. It had $376,000 in deferred tax benefits from the sale of land development rights at Kaupulehu Developments, a North Kona resort business in which Barnwell is the 77.6 percent majority owner.
The sale took place in the first quarter but Barnwell said it did not report an operating profit from the transaction because it does not recognize such profits until the cash it receives exceeds not only earlier development costs but future costs associated with the development rights. An option payment of $2.1 million is due Dec. 31, which should cover Kaupulehu Developments' costs, the company said. Further payments are due at the end of each of the next eight years.
Barnwell's oil and gas exploration division, which primarily operates in Alberta, Canada, invested $4.6 million in oil and gas exploration in 2002, the company said.