Anadarko profit falls 83 pct vs. year ago, when sales helped

Anadarko, one of the nation's largest independent exploration and production companies, posted profit of $286 million, or 61 cents a share, for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $1.7 billion, or $3.70 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue fell to $2.9 billion from $5.2 billion, the company said.

Net income in the most-recent quarter was reduced by about $440 million, or 94 cents a share, by one-time items.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting earnings of $1.22 per share on $3.13 billion in revenue. Those forecasts typically exclude special items.

In the first quarter of 2007, the company's profit was lifted by $1.66 billion, or $3.56 a share, from sales as Anadarko reshaped itself following its $22 billion purchase of Kerr-McGee Corp. and Western Gas Resources Inc.

The Kerr-McGee and Western Gas deals took place in August 2006. Since then, Anadarko has sold off assets to reduce debt, but kept higher margin, less capital intensive fields in places like the Rocky Mountains and east Texas.

The company has said it met a goal of reducing its long-term debt in 2007 from about $26 billion to about $12 billion. Long-term debt stood at about $11.2 billion at the end of the first quarter.

"I'm pleased with our operational performance through the first three months of 2008, which again exceeded the high end of our production expectations," Jim Hackett, Anadarko's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

Anadarko said production increased 8 percent from the first-quarter of 2007, based on retained properties.