Cabot Oil and Gas took issue with the negative way in which it’s 2002 financial and performance results were characterized in a story that ran in Daily GPI on Feb. 25. Although Cabot’s net income per share declined to 65 cents last year from $1.71 the prior year, its fourth quarter net income per share was up to 36 cents from to a loss in 4Q2001 of 34 cents. The company also showed strong performance results. “When you look at year over year, it was not as good as the year before in terms of dollars. But in terms of production, we produced a double digit production jump of 12%, we had our second highest level of discretionary cash flow and we reduced debt by $28 million,” said Cabot spokeswoman Karin Thorton. “Those are all positive.” Lower realized commodity prices were the main factor in the decline in reported results, the company said. Its average realized natural gas price fell more than 30% in 2002 to $3.02/Mcf compared to an average realization of $4.36/Mcf in 2001. Oil prices declined from $24.91 to $23.79 per barrel. For 2002, Cabot reported equivalent production of 91.1 Bcfe, compared to 81.1 Bcfe produced in 2001.

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