((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
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Average selling price of oil and gas in third quarter declines compared to previous year
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Coterra raises its production forecasts for 2024 by 1%
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Its third-quarter oil production rises 22%
(Added details on results and context from paragraph 2)
American oil and gas producer Coterra Energy
CTRA.N missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter profit on Thursday, due to falling commodity prices.
Benchmark natural gas prices remained weak for most of the quarter, hurt by high storage levels and lukewarm demand.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. gas production will decline by 2024, for the first time since 2020, as producers like Coterra cut production after prices hit their highest low level for several decades.
The company's average natural gas selling price, excluding hedges, fell to $1.30 per thousand cubic feet (mcf), from $1.80 per mcf a year earlier. Oil prices also fell 8.4% to $74.04 per barrel due to weak demand.
Total production fell slightly to 669,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) from 670,300 boepd, as the decline in natural gas production was largely offset by a 22.2% increase in oil production.
Coterra reallocated its resources to the oil-rich Permian and Anadarko basins at the expense of the nation's largest gas-producing region, the Marcellus shale, following the collapse of natural gas prices this year.
The company, however, raised its 2024 production forecast to a range of 660,000 to 675,000 boepd, up 1% at the midpoint from its earlier projections, driven mainly by strong oil production.
Its shares rose 1.8% in after-market trading.
The company also expects oil production to increase 5% annually over the next two years.
However, it indicated that growth in total equivalent production would be in the range of zero to 5% until 2026.
Coterra's third-quarter net income fell 22% from the previous quarter to $252 million.
Its adjusted earnings of 32 cents per share fell short of the market estimate of 34 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG.
