Gas, oil prices help Barnwell’s net
Barnwell Industries Inc.'s net income gained 33.9 percent in its fiscal second quarter as prices spiked for oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.
Second-quarter net:
$1.7 million
Year-earlier net:
$1.3 million
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The Honolulu-based company said yesterday it had earnings of $1.7 million, or 20 cents a share, versus $1.3 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago.
Revenue jumped 28.2 percent to $14.3 million from $11.2 million.
The company also declared a dividend of 5 cents a share that will be payable June 16 to stockholders of record on June 2.
Barnwell, which gets about two-thirds of its revenue from its oil and natural gas operations in Alberta, Canada, said in the three-month period ended March 31 that oil prices increased 78 percent, natural gas liquids prices jumped 62 percent and natural gas prices rose 21 percent.
Morton Kinzler, chairman and chief executive of Barnwell, said the company's oil and natural gas segment invested $5.6 million in oil and gas exploration and development last quarter, and participated in the drilling of five wells during the period.
Barnwell Chief Financial Officer Russell Gifford said that about two-thirds of the company's oil and natural gas revenue comes from natural gas so "natural gas has more of an impact on the company's earnings than the price of oil."
The price for natural gas at the end of last week was $9.54 in Canada -- about $2 above the $7.53 average price that Barnwell fetched last quarter. Oil prices ended last week at around $126 a barrel, well above the average of $90 a barrel that Barnwell received for the same three-month period.
Barnwell, which also has real estate holdings on the Big Island and a statewide water-drilling operation, received small contributions from those units last quarter. Gifford said real estate revenue was about $200,000 while water-drilling revenue was up about 90 percent from a year ago. He said Barnwell is currently conducting drilling on Maui and the Big Island.